CONSULTATION ON THE WHITE PAPER ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - A EUROPEAN APPROACH

Abstract

SUMMARY From 19 February to 14 June 2020, the European Commission held a Public Consultation on several policy and regulatory proposals that are currently being considered in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This consultation was centered on two main documents presented by the Commission: the White Paper on Artificial Intelligence[1] and the “Report on the safety and liability implications of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and robotics”[2]. The consultation also included an online survey[3], where the central themes of those two documents were covered in a summarized way. In November 2020, the results of the consultation were presented, as well as the texts accepted for publication[4]. In order to participate in this pre-legislative process, a working group was created within the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the Lusófona University of Porto, which presented a contribution that was accepted and published by the European Commission[5]. The White Paper is centred in one powerful objective which is “to enable a trustworthy and secure development of AI in Europe, in full respect of the values and rights of EU citizens”, and for that presents two central ideas considered essential to attain it that are to create an ecosystem of excellence along the entire value chain and an ecosystem of trust that ensure compliance with EU rules, including rules protecting fundamental rights and consumers’ rights. The text that follows is divided in two main parts: Part I is focused on presenting an overview on the three main topics pointed out at the consultation: Excellence, Trust and Liability; Part II corresponds to text of the contribution submitted in the Public Consultation held by the European Commission. Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Liability; Cybercrime; Ethics; Competition