On 14-15 September 2021, representatives of the Council of Europe took part in the 2nd AI Policy Conference 2021, an event organised by RegHorizon in collaboration with ETH Zurich's Center for Law & Economics
During the first day of the conference, Jan Kleijssen, the Council’s Director, Information society – Action against crime, participated in the panel discussion on global regulatory initiatives on AI. He and other panelists discussed the implications and limitations of global AI regulatory initiatives. During the discussion, Director Kleijssen explained the Council’s vision and recent developments in AI policy building. He also delineated the differences in the focus and mandates of the European Commission’s and the Council of Europe’s, underlining the complementarity of their work on the subject.
During the second day of the conference, two other panels featured the Council’s representatives.
Aleksandr Tiulkanov, from the Council’s Digital Development Unit, took part in the panel focusing on innovative tools which can strengthen policy solutions. He discussed regulatory concerns related to the risks of automated decision making, existing frameworks which AI developers may use to reduce AI bias and improve AI fairness, as well as the risks of AI fairwashing.
Peter Kimpian, from the Council’s Data Protection Unit, participated in the panel dealing with data policy and its effect on the trust in AI applications. He discussed how the regulatory framework enabled by the Council’s Convention 108+ plays a major role in protecting individuals in the era of accelerated data collection and processing. He also underlined that to establish the trust of individuals in the new AI systems, their developers and users must ensure that the individuals’ rights, including their right to privacy and dignity, are maintained and the protection of those rights is prioritized.
Videos:
Panel 2 - Global regulatory developments and outlook (with J. Kleissen)
Panel 5 – How can data policy increase trust in AI applications? (with P. Kimpian)
