The EU AI Act: a failure for human rights, a victory for industry and law
enforcement
PUBLISHED: 13 March 2024
The EU’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act was voted through and adopted today,
13 March, in a plenary session of the European Parliament. Despite its
intention to protect people’s rights, the final text of the AI Act is an
unambitious piece of product safety legislation. Following outrageous lobbying
by industry and law enforcement agencies, the final text is full of loopholes,
carve-outs, and exceptions, which mean that it will not protect people, nor
their human rights, from some of the most dangerous uses of AI.
First proposed in 2021, the EU’s co-legislative bodies finally announced a deal
on the EU AI Act in December 2023. The European Parliament entered the last
trilogue negotiations with a very strong text, but it fell at the final hurdle;
protections for people’s rights have either been watered down or fully removed
in the text voted through today.
"EU officials boast about being global trendsetters when it comes to regulating
AI, but with this law they’ve set the lowest bar possible. The new AI Act is
littered with concessions to industry lobbying, exemptions for the most
dangerous uses of AI by law enforcement and migration authorities, and
prohibitions so full of loopholes that they don’t actually ban some of the most
dangerous uses of AI. " Daniel Leufer, Senior Policy Analyst at Access Now
Access Now notes in particular that the final version of the AI Act:
Fails to properly ban some of the most dangerous uses of AI, including
systems that enable biometric mass surveillance and predictive policing systems;
Creates a glaring loophole via Article 6(3) for developers to exempt
themselves from obligations for high-risk AI systems,;
Exempts law enforcement and migration authorities from important public
transparency requirements when they use high-risk AI, meaning they can continue
deploying dangerous systems in secret;
Further broadens the national security exemption beyond what is allowed for
in the EU treaties, allowing governments to exempt themselves from obligations
under the AI Act in order to pursue cases deemed relevant to national security;
Creates a separate regime for people migrating, seeking refuge, and/or
living undocumented, leaving with them far fewer rights than EU citizens and
almost no access to remedy when these rights are violated.
The #ProtectNotSurveil coalition, which Access Now co-leads, has detailed how
the final AI Act presents heightened risks in a migration context, setting
dangerous precedents for the use of surveillance technologies against people on
the move and racialised communities.
"The EU AI Act will only entrench police and migration authorities’ existing
culture of impunity – encouraging them to keep deploying harmful AI systems
against the most marginalised communities. Once again, the EU’s digital
policies are being used as a testbed for oppressive surveillance representing a
blatant attack on everyone’s fundamental rights." Caterina Rodelli, EU Policy
Analyst at Access Now
Despite the AI Act’s profound shortcomings, Access Now will work with civil
society partners to push for the strongest possible implementation of the AI
Act and the few rights-protecting tools it includes, while continuing to
monitor and call out AI-facilitated abuses.
https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/ai-act-failure-for-human-rights-victory-for-industry-and-law-enforcement/
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