A Stress Test for the EU’s Digital Rule Book: Ensuring AI Governance is Grounded in Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights

  • Panel
  • Maritime
  • Wednesday 21.05 — 10:30 - 11:45

Organising Institution

Article 19

Europe

  • Academic 2
  • Business 2
  • Policy 2
Amidst much fanfare on the need for a ‘competitive’ Europe, geo-political pressures and a clear intention to pursue industrial policy & security approaches, we are concerned that regulating for the ‘common good’ and respect for human rights have been deprioritised. The AI Liability Directive will be withdrawn and with the rise of purpose general-purpose AI (GPAI) technologies, the EU has developed regulatory responses (e.g. the voluntary AI Code of Practice) which have been criticised as little more than window-dressing with negligible input from civil society. There is a growing risk that meaningful guardrails will be sacrificed in favour of approaches that maintain the status quo power imbalances between technology companies and people affected by their products and services. This has implications for the economy, democracy, and society, which go well beyond the industrial and economic policy aims championed by the Draghi Report. This panel of experts will consider the rapidly changing environment and what a change in regulatory approach towards AI could mean.

Questions to be answered

  1. How can we ensure that human rights and democracy considerations remain central to AI governance frameworks as the EU shifts focus towards industrial policy and competitiveness?
  2. How should regulators address the underlying infrastructure concentration, and what implications does cloud dependence have for meaningful AI oversight?
  3. What lessons can be drawn from previous attempts at technology (self)-regulation that might inform the development of more effective guardrails for general-purpose AI systems?
  4. As Europe navigates tensions between encouraging innovation and ensuring appropriate safeguards, what role should civil society organizations and others play in counterbalancing industry influence on AI governance frameworks? How can such organizations most effectively advocate for rights?

Moderator

Corinne Cath

Article 19 - International

Corinne is Head of Digital at ARTICLE 19 and a cultural anthropologist, having studyied the politics of Internet governance, AI and cloud computing. In the past, Corinne worked as a postdoc at the University of Delft in The Netherlands with Dr. Seda Gürses and Dr. Prof. Linnet Taylor, in the context of the OCW Algo/Soc consortium. Her work dealt with questions of computational infrastructure (cloud computing and mobile devices) in the context of the administration of justice. Most recent current research focuses on how cloud computing and AI are transforming society, the consequences of these transformations for public institutions—and the adequacy of existing technology policy efforts that touch on cloud computing. Corinne is also a research affiliate at Cambridge University's Minderoo Centre and a fellow at the critical infrastructure lab at the University of Amsterdam and has a PhD degree from the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford.

Speaker

Kai Zenner

European Parliament - Europe

Head of Office and Digital Policy Adviser for MEP Axel Voss

Speaker

Seda Gürses

Delft University of Technology - Netherlands

Seda is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Multi-Actor Systems at TU Delft at the Faculty of Technology Policy and Management, and an affiliate at the COSIC Group at the Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven. Previously she was an FWO post-doctoral fellow at COSIC/ESAT, a research associate at the Center for Information Technology and Policy at Princeton University, and a fellow at the Media, Culture and Communications Department at NYU Steinhardt as well as the Information Law Institute at NYU Law School.

Speaker

Maria-Luisa Stasi

Article 19 - United Kingdom

Maria Luisa is a competition lawyer by background with expertise in media, telecoms, and digital sectors. In the past, she worked as a competition associate at Bonelli Erede law firm and then spent 5 years in the academic and policy environment, dealing with regulatory reforms linked to the disruption led by the internet, and training judges and enforcers on competition, telecoms and media laws. She currently leads ARTICLE 19’s law and policy work concerning digital markets, focusing on using economic regulation and competition law and policy to advance the protection of free expression online. Maria Luisa holds an LLM from the College of Europe in Bruges and a PhD Tilburg Law School.

Speaker

Maria Donde

Coimisiún na Meán - Ireland

As the International Affairs Director at Coimisiún na Meán, the media and online safety regulator in Ireland, Maria leads its programme of international engagement, overseeing relationships with European and global institutions. She represents an Coimisiún on the full range of online platform and media regulatory and policy questions. Prior to her current role, she worked for six years as the Head of International Content Policy at the UK’s Communications regulator, Ofcom where, among other things, she was responsible for Ofcom’s input into the negotiations on the 2018 AVMS Directive and its response to the original consultations on the Digital Services Act. She served as a member of the Board of the European Platform of Regulatory Authorities (EPRA) from 2018-2024 and has worked extensively as an expert member of Council of Europe working groups, developing recommendations on media policy, including chairing the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on Media Environment and Reform. Previously, Maria worked in advertising regulation and as a radio producer for the BBC World Service. She has a Bachelors Degree in Modern Languages from Cambridge University and a Masters Degree in Literary Translation.