The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has underlined that artificial intelligence (AI) brings both major opportunities and serious risks for democratic systems, while warning that regulation and democratic governance frameworks are failing to keep up with the pace of innovation.
The most transformative revolution in human history
“AI may represent the most transformative revolution in human history” the Assembly said in a resolution, based on a report by Deborah Bergamini (Italy, EPP/CD), while expressing concern about its potentially disruptive impact on democracy in Europe and beyond.
At the same time AI “should not be demonised”, the resolution pointed out, noting that with appropriate governance it can help to innovate democratic systems, by increasing public participation, promoting access to information and encouraging deliberative democracy.
The resolution highlights both positive and negative impacts of the new technology. On the one hand, AI can “promote inclusiveness by eliminating socio-economic barriers” and improve access to public services, education and employment.
On the other hand, the large datasets used to train AI systems “can be exploited by malevolent individuals, companies or governments, for mass surveillance purposes, predictive policing, risk and social scoring, and censoring political opinions”.
The Parliamentary Assembly also warns that AI can be “polluted by politically biased disinformation” or contain biases that could “lead to ill-informed decisions or discrimination against certain groups, such as women or minorities”. It can also sometimes “hallucinate”, generating incomplete or misleading information.
Parliamentarians urged Council of Europe member and observer states to ratify the Council of Europe Framework Convention on artificial intelligence and human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
