The European Union has taken a further step towards banning the use of artificial intelligence to carry out mass surveillance, rule on court cases or predict whether individuals will commit crimes.
New legislation that would introduce strict controls on AI to prevent racial, gender or age bias in particular 鈥渉igh risk鈥� areas such as law enforcement is currently working its way through the European Parliament, but a by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs recently proposed even tighter controls, and a total ban on the use of AI in law enforcement and criminal justice. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) debated the report this week and approved it by 377 to 248 votes.
Although there is no guarantee that this result will influence the draft AI legislation, a parliament spokesperson told 快猫短视频 that the votes are 鈥渁n opportunity to show which positions can command majorities in parliament, with a view towards future legislation鈥�.
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鈥淢EPs have made clear that police and criminal justice authorities in Europe must no longer be allowed to use AI systems which automate injustice, undermine fundamental rights and result in discriminatory outcomes,鈥� says at campaign group Fair Trials. 鈥淭his is a strong statement of intent that the European Parliament will protect Europeans from these systems and a first step towards a ban on some of the most harmful uses, including the use of predictive and profiling AI, and biometric mass surveillance.鈥�
The vote places the EU on a diverging course from the UK post-Brexit, as the country has played host to a number of AI trials that would probably be banned under the new EU legislation. For example, the Durham Constabulary police force has used an algorithm called the 聽for several years to analyse a range of data including a person鈥檚 age, gender and offending history to determine their likelihood for recidivism.
In London, the Metropolitan Police to combat a range of crimes, as does South Wales Police, though the force was required to make changes to the way it is deployed following a court case that . 鈥淎dvancements such as facial recognition will help us tackle serious offences including knife crime, rape, child sexual exploitation and terrorism. So it is right that we back and empower the police to use these in a way that maintains public trust,鈥� a UK Home Office spokesperson told 快猫短视频. The Ministry of Justice declined to comment.
The UK does have an Office for Artificial Intelligence that oversees possible regulation, which is jointly run by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. Neither department responded to a request for comment. A aims to build an ethical framework for the use of AI in the criminal justice system, but is still ongoing. The institute didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment.
at the University of Oxford says that the EU鈥檚 careful approach is the way to go, and that although the UK has lagged behind on developing AI regulation, there is still time to catch up. 鈥淚 absolutely don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 too late,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 see a lot of institutions in the UK actually being very vocal around this, so I think there鈥檚 still room to pivot in the right direction.鈥�
Current methods of AI-based policing are based on 鈥渋nherently bad鈥� data that is probably not fixable because it was collected using unfair policing strategies, says Wachter, and measures are needed to ensure they don鈥檛 unfairly impact minority groups. As an example, she points out that you are by police in England and Wales if you are Black. 鈥淎lgorithm decision-making is only acceptable if the way we used to make decisions as humans is something that we鈥檙e happy with,鈥� she says.
