Packed with loopholes: Why the AI Act fails to protect civic space and the rule of law
The European Parliament approved the AI Act on 13 March 2024, thus marking the end of a three-year-long legislative process. Yet to come are guidelines and delegated acts to clarify the often vague requirements. In this article, ECNL takes stock of the extent to which fundamental rights, civic space and the rule of law will be safeguarded and provide an analysis of key AI Act provisions.
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Packed with loopholes: Why the AI Act fails to protect civic space and the rule of law
The European Parliament approved the AI Act on 13 March 2024, thus marking the end of a three-year-long legislative process. Yet to come are guidelines and delegated acts to clarify the often vague requirements. In this article, ECNL takes stock of the extent to which fundamental rights, civic space and the rule of law will be safeguarded and provide an analysis of key AI Act provisions.
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The two sides of web scraping: When data collection becomes a double-edged sword
Emerging AI technology often relies on methods of data collection – such as web-scraping – which can become a double edged sword when not used with safeguards and transparency or in ways that are unlawful. These methods have been used to achieve several key victories for digital rights, but can also be exploitative.
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EU’s AI Act fails to set gold standard for human rights
A round-up of how the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act fares against the collective demands of a broad civil society coalition that advocated for prioritising the protection of fundamental human rights in the law.
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Council to vote on EU AI Act: What’s at stake?
The EU Council is set to vote on the AI Act on 2 February after three years of negotiation on this legislation. Our civil society AI coalition summarises the latest updates, what is at stake, and civil society's views on the AI Act.
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EU AI Act: Deal reached, but too soon to celebrate
On 8 December 2023, following over 36 hours of negotiations, EU lawmakers finally cinched a deal on the Artificial Intelligence Act. However, whilst some fundamental rights protections have been won, the overall Act has not lived up to its potential to put people and their rights front and center.
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NGOs and experts warn AI Act negotiators: don’t trade our rights!
On 8 December 2023, 70 civil society groups and 34 expert individuals sent an urgent letter to the Council of EU Member States, the European Commission and the European Parliament to urge them "Do not trade away our rights!" in the final trilogue (negotiation) on the landmark Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act.
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New educational videos about AI in media, privacy & digital exclusion. Here is what they show
You can now watch all ten videos about artificial intelligence (AI) in the media, cybersecurity for journalists, but also about digital exclusion and the impact of digitalisation on people with disabilities. This is one of the final outputs of the project „Promoting human rights in the digital era“, which involved members of EDRi Iuridicum Remedium (IuRe) from the Czech Republic and Elektronisk Forpost Norge from Norway.
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Civil society statement: Council risks failing human rights in the AI Act
In the run up to EU AI Act trilogue negotiation, 16 civil society organisations are urging representatives of the Council of the European Union to effectively regulate the use of AI systems by law enforcement, migration control and national security authorities in the legislation.
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AI Act: What happens when lawmakers’ faces get scanned with face recognition algorithms?
EDRi member in Italy Hermes Center simulates face recognition on lawmakers to pressure them for a total ban of remote biometric identification (RBI) in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act.
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The EU wants to make facial recognition history — but it must be done for the right reasons
Whilst civil rights activists have long called for an outright ban, certain EU lawmakers may see the AI Act as an opportunity to claim that they are doing the (human) right(s) thing — and actually doing the opposite.
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EU AI Act Trilogues: Status of Fundamental Rights Recommendations
As the EU AI Act negotiations continue, a number of controversial issues remain open. At stake are vital issues including the extent to which general purpose/foundation models are regulated, but also crucially, how far does the AI Act effectively prevent harm from the use of AI for law enforcement, migration, and national security purposes.
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Unchecked AI will lead us to a police state
Across Europe, police, migration and security authorities are seeking to develop and use AI in increasing contexts. From the planned use of AI-based video surveillance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, to the millions of EU funds invested in AI based surveillance at Europe’s borders, AI systems are more and more part of the state surveillance infrastructure.
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