Bias, Discrimination and Data Protection in the Age of GPAI

  • Panel
  • Le Baixu
  • Wednesday 21.05 — 08:45 - 10:00

Organising Institution

University of Turin, Law Department

Italy

Founded in 1404, the University of Torino (UniTo) is one of the largest Italian Universities, with over 81.000 students, 7% of which of non-Italian citizenship, around 4.500 employees (academic, administrative and technical staff), more than 1.500 Ph.D. students and more than 700 research fellows. Research and training are performed in 27 Departments, encompassing all scientific disciplines except engineering and architecture. According to the ARWU Shanghai international ranking, in 2023 UniTo ranked as the 5th university in Italy and among the top 300 universities out of 1.200 worldwide. UniTo is also 3th in Italy and 18nd over 600+ worldwide in the 2023 ranking by GreenMetrics, assessing the environmental and social sustainability of academic activities and infrastructures.
  • Academic 2
  • Business 2
  • Policy 2
EU anti-discrimination law was developed before the growing impact of the latest generation of AI systems and models that can perpetuate existing biases or create new ones, amplifying systemic forms of discrimination in crucial areas, such as access to services, employment, and education. General purpose artificial intelligence (GPAI), as defined and regulated in the AI Act, does raise normative and epistemological challenges that must be examined in connection with principles and provisions of the GDPR. The panel will bring together experts from the academia, institutions, and civil society to discuss the regulatory, technical, and cultural strategies to safeguard responsible and inclusive uses of GPAI that shall respect the fundamental right to personal data protection.

Questions to be answered

  1. How should we grasp the interplay of EU anti-discrimination laws, the GDPR and the AI Act?
  2. Does this complex regulatory framework affect the principle of legal certainty in EU law?
  3. What forms of conceptualization of algorithmic discrimination can tackle the challenges brought forth by GPAI?
  4. Is the GDPR good enough to protect the fundamental right to personal data protection in the age of GPAI?

Moderator

Jacopo Ciani Sciolla

Law Department, University of Turin - Italy

Jacopo Ciani is a research associate at the University of Turin (Italy), School of Law, where he teaches Legal Informatics. He is also adjunct professor at ESCP Business School, Fellow of the Information Society Law Center and lawyer in Milan. He is author of two monographies on the Public Domain in the Knowledge Society and on Ecodesign. His main research field is philosophy of law and law and technology, with a particular interest in legal and ethical issues related to data governance, advertising, digitization, access to knowledge and sustainability.

Speaker

Bart van der Sloot

Tilburg University - Netherlands

Dr Bart van der Sloot is associate professor at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society, Tilburg University, and is the Editor in Chief of the European Data Protection Law Review. He has a dual background in philosophy and law and specialises in questions revolving around law and technology, Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights.

Speaker

Raphaële Xenidis

Sciences Po Law School - France

Raphaële Xenidis is an Assistant Professor in European Law at the School of Law of Sciences Po in France and a senior expert of the European Equality Law Network. Raphaële’s work focuses on discrimination law, in particular on algorithmic discrimination and data-driven inequality as well as intersectional discrimination in the context of European equality law. Previously, Raphaële was a lecturer in EU law at the University of Edinburgh, School of Law, and a Marie Curie Fellow at iCourts, University of Copenhagen Law School. Raphaële obtained her Ph.D. in law at the European University Institute.

Speaker

Monica Senor

Garante per la protezione dei dati personali - Italy

Monica Alessia Senor is a legal officer at the Italian Data Protection Authority. She is a former criminal lawyer specializing in privacy, data protection, ICT and digital law. She's fellow of the Nexa Center for Internet and Society of the Politecnico of Turin and a teacher at the Second Level Master on Legal informatics and IT law at the Roma “La Sapienza” University. She is the author of many scientific papers on data protection, artificial intelligence and ICT law and she has been a speaker at various conferences and training courses.

Speaker

Stefaan Verhulst

The Data Tank - Belgium

Dr. Stefaan G. Verhulst is an expert in using data and technology for social impact. He is the Co-Founder of several research organizations including the Governance Laboratory (GovLab) at New York University and The DataTank in Brussels where he serves in leadership positions. As a research professor at the Tandon School of Engineering of New York University, he focuses on using advances in science and technology, including data and AI, to improve decision-making and problem-solving. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the open-access journal Data & Policy and has served as a member of several expert groups on data and technology, including the High-Level Expert Group to the European Commission on Business-to-Government Data Sharing and the Expert Group to Eurostat on using Private Sector data for Official Statistics. He has been recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential Academics in Digital Government globally. He has published extensively on these topics, including several books, and has been invited to speak at international conferences, including TED and the UN World Data Forum.