As previously discussed on the Alston & Bird Privacy Blog, the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence released on April 8, 2019 the final version of its Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI.
The Guidelines, although not legally binding, are important because they represent the first significant government-initiated effort to influence the use of AI systems. The principles within the initial set of Guidelines could form the basis of AI regulation in the EU and elsewhere. Indeed, in the initial communication to the European Parliament, the European Commission expressly contemplates in the future an appropriate “ethical and legal framework”; the Guidelines represent a first attempt at the ethical framework. Scott Kitchens, partner in the Corporate Transactions & Securities Group, and Laura Song, associate in the Privacy & Data Security Team, explore this ethical framework and the current and future issues of an emerging EU regulatory framework in the Law360 expert analysis, “EU Ethics Guidelines For AI Are Just The Beginning.”