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LawBytes #26 deals this week with the draft European Guidelines on AI and the political agreement on ePayment Directive that might boost innnovation.
AI – Draft guidelines on artificial intelligence by the EU Commission
Following the launch of the EU’s coordinated plan on artificial intelligence, after only two weeks from the adoption of the European Ethical Charter on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Judicial Systems by the European Commission for The Efficiency Of Justice, the first draft of Ethics Guidelines for the development and use of artificial intelligence was officially released.
The guidelines set some key principles to which artificial intelligence based technologies should adhere, such as transparency and non-discrimination, but also stress the importance of making sure the technology behind AI is sufficiently robust: algorithms have to be reliable and strong enough to protect against cyber-attacks and there should always be a ‘fall-back’ plan in case of problems.
Finally, the AI guidelines also set out how these principles can be maintained by following certain procedures such as making sure that privacy and safety are guaranteed from the outset and that testing and trialling is rigorous.
The draft Ethics Guidelines are now open for comments until 18 January 2019, and in March 2019, the expert group will present their final AI guidelines to the Commission which will analyse them and propose how to take this work forward.
According to Vice-President for the Digital Single Market: “AI can bring major benefits to our societies, (…) but for people to accept and use AI-based systems, they need to trust them, know that their privacy is respected, that decisions are not biased. “
In my opinion as regulators rush to make sure that AI is aligned with our core values and fundamental rights on the global stage, ethics, privacy and cybersecurity are the key factors to take into account in order to accelerate the development of AI based technologies for the benefit of all.
If you are interested in this topic don’t miss our previous posts: “Can only AI successfully regulate Artificial Intelligence?” and “International Privacy Commissioners’ joint declaration on artificial intelligence“.
ePayment – EU institutions reach an agreement on the new Directive
With the rising prevalence of e-commerce and other transactions at a distance, non-cash payments constitute an increasing share of overall payments.
Although security has continually improved with the introduction of standards applying to Payment Service Providers and for access to the online banking environment, frauds are still on the rise and affect the trust of the public in digital services, undermining the strength and reliability of the EU digital single market.
Accordingly, the EU is stepping up the fight against fraud involving ePayment by upgrading and modernising the existing rules.
After the publication of an Inception Impact Assessment in May 2016, on 13 September 2017 the Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive on combatting fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment. After discussion by the co-legislators, the EU Council and Parliament recently reached an agreement on the proposed text. This provisional political agreement will now have to be confirmed by the two institutions.
I believe both traditional ePayment providers and the newcomers shall carefully monitor this legislative evolution as the directive is technology-neutral and will encompass not only non-cash payments such as bank cards or cheques but also electronic wallets, mobile payments and virtual currencies.
If you are interested in this topic don’t miss our previous posts: “How eCommerce changes with new consumer and privacy regulations?” and “What changes for virtual currency with new anti-money laundering laws?”.
I am Tommaso Ricci, you can drop me a line @ tommaso.ricci@dlapiper.com. Read the previous issues of LawBytes here and register to our newsletter. Also don’t forget to try Prisca our GDPR chatbot described HERE
