THE EUROPEAN UNION ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REGULATION AND THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

AN ONGOING CONVERSATION ON THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Resumo

We are living an unprecedented development of artificial intelligence technologies, which are rapidly merging with our social, political and cultural lives leading to new legal questions on its regulation and the consequences of the deployment of these tools. The European continent is attempting to offer a comprehensive answer (via the Council of Europe with its Framework Convention and, almost simultaneously, via the European Union and the Artificial Intelligence Regulation) while fundamental rights concerns and critiques on the environmental consequences of AI are starting to gain traction. The conversation on the ethical and environmental costs of AI has been growing as the latest information has been made public: among those concerns we find its water and energy consumption as well as the possible interference of AI with human rights all around the world. Parallel to the phenomenon of an increasing collective awareness of the risk associated with AI, there has been ongoing pressure by the leading actors of the sector demanding a different approach to its regulation. Big tech enterprises claim that the focus on a comprehensive framework of regulation is too limiting and is neither operative nor reflects the needs of the field. This constant struggle between the European “return to law” approach and the demands of the sector –which advocates for the neo-Californian view of endless innovation– is repeatedly resulting in a legal, intellectual, and ideological clash. Reminiscent of the environmental law struggle to obtain a compromise from both the public and private sector in a growing context of greenwashing –the approval of policies emptied of binding commitments–, we are now witnessing an age of digital ethics-washing in which the commitments reached with the leading actors in the sector are limited to mere codes of conduct. Simultaneously, the legal instruments which were supposed to offer a stricter framework are providing a limited answer to human rights and environmental concerns, which might be even more reduced as the regulation becomes fully effective. The objective of this proposal is to examine the European Artificial Intelligence Regulation analyzing specifically the impact of article 27 in the context of legal requirements demanded by the Regulation to ensure the protection of human rights and how this instrument reflects both the concerns of the European institutions and the demands of the technological sector. The critique of the article will be made considering the context in which it was developed and will underline which may be the main obstacles for it to fulfill its aims. The study proposed will be made in comparison with the Framework Convention on AI by the Council of Europe as they present differences in their drafting processes as well as in their potential impact beyond European borders.