Are two rights better than one? Explaining decision-making under the GDPR and the AI Act

  • Panel
  • Grande Halle
  • Wednesday 20.05 — 17:20 - 18:40
  • Academic 3
  • Business 2
  • Policy 1
AI increasingly influences decisions about people. This raises the question of how individuals are protected from the associated risks. Two provisions in EU law address this challenge. Article 22 GDPR envisages protecting individuals from automated decision-making (ADM). Article 15 (1) lit h GDPR provides a 'genuine right to explanation', allowing individuals to request 'meaningful information about the logic' involved in ADM. The AI Act.'s Article 86 empowers individuals to obtain explanations for decisions based on an output from a high-risk AI system. Individuals can obtain 'clear and meaningful explanations of the role of the AI system in the decision-making procedure and the main elements of the decision taken'. The similarity of these two rights begs for an explanation, which this panel aims to provide. The panel offers a comprehensive perspective, covering views from legal practice, academia and regulators.

Questions to be answered

  1. What is the scope of the right to explanation under the GDPR and the AI Act?
  2. How do these two rights interact?
  3. What remedies do individuals have to enforce their right to explanation?
  4. Why is the right to explanation under the AI Act needed?

Speaker

Andreas Häuselmann

Open Universiteit - Netherlands

Andreas Häuselmann is an Assistant Professor of Privacy and Data Protection Law at Open Universiteit in the Netherlands. He has obtained his PhD in AI and EU Privacy and Data Protection Law at Leiden University in the Netherlands. His research concentrates on EU privacy and data protection law with a focus on AI, including topics such as automated decision-making, the right to explanation under the GDPR and AI Act, accuracy, data subject rights, and human-machine communication. Andreas combines his role in academia with legal practice. He is a Senior Adviser - Law & AI at the Dutch law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek N.V.

Speaker

Francesca Palmiotto

IE University - Spain

Francesca Palmiotto is an Assistant Professor of Law at IE University. Her research focuses on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on fundamental rights in criminal justice, migration, and security. She earned her PhD in 2023 from the European University Institute. Before joining IE University, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Hertie School in Berlin. Since 2025, she has been a member of the Board of Trustees at Fair Trials Europe, where she advises on the use of AI in criminal proceedings and related fundamental rights challenges.

Speaker

Charlotte Barot

CNIL (Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés) - France

Charlotte Barot has been working within the AI Unit of the CNIL since 2023, where she contributes to the preparation and implementation of the AI Act, ensuring its alignment with the GDPR missions. With a background in cognitive science, she focuses on hybrid decision-making in compliance with GDPR. In addition, she participates in standardization activities related to the AI Act.