COMECE welcomes the human-centric approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI) adopted in the “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI” published by the European Commission on Tuesday 9 April 2019.
(Credit: European Commission)
In February 2019 COMECE contributed to the public consultation carried out by the EC High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, reaffirming the primacy of the human person and promoting a right-based approach in reviewing the main principles that define the relationship between human persons and robots.
The Guidelines’ objective is to build trust in artificial intelligence by making AI lawful, ethical and robust.
The EU position reflects some of the COMECE recommendations: it supports the inclusion of Lethal Autonomous Weapons (LAWS) among the cases raising critical concerns in the field of AI, and defines the principle of “human autonomy” and the requirement of “human agency and oversight” as central argumentation lines.
The EC High-Level Expert Group would like the Guidelines to be a living document, reviewed and updated periodically. Ideally this could lead to better take into account the specificity of each stakeholder (e.g. AI developer, private user, public sector), as different situations raise different challenges.
Regular and dynamic review of the Guidelines responds to COMECE’s call for an intense and forward-looking discussion on the ethical impacts of Artificial Intelligence on the human person and societies, as highlighted in the recently published COMECE Reflection “Robotisation of Life”.