Patrick Penninckx, Head of the Information Society Department at the Council of Europe conducted a webinar on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights on the 26th of May 2020. The webinar was organised by the European Law Students Association (ELSA) as part of a series of webinars on Law and technology. The speaker portrayed the significant changes the society is undergoing today with the rise of new technologies and artificial intelligence applications, indicated the multiple impacts on daily lives, professional environment and social and political systems. He further described the challenges to basic human rights, such as the right to privacy and family life, the freedom of expression and the right to participate in democratic elections free from undue influences. The speaker focused specifically on the impact of contact tracing, facial recognition, predictive policing, mass-surveillance, “emotion detection”, content management, “deep fakes” and other pioneering technologies. He further described the works undertaken in multiple fields at the Council of Europe to assess and control the human-rights impact of algorithms and also described the work of the Ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI) on regulating AI.

The webinar concluded with a Q&A session, moderated by Aleksandra Zuchowska, Vice President in charge of Seminars and Conferences at ELSA International.

Webinar video

Webinar presentation