At the virtual conference on the regulation of artificial intelligence, ethics and fundamental rights

The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia hosted a virtual event focusing on the effective protection of fundamental rights regarding artificial intelligence in Europe and beyond.

Minister Dikaučič said that the existing rules cannot provide answers to all the challenges brought by artificial intelligence, which is why it is necessary to take further steps in the creation of a legal framework.

The conference was opened by the justice ministers of the trio presidency of the Council of the EU (Slovenian Minister of Justice Marjan Dikaučič, Portuguese Minister of Justice Francisca van Dunem and German Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht), European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, MEP and Chair of the Committee on Legal Affairs Adrián Vázquez Lázara, MEP and Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Juan Fernando López Aguilar, and Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić.

The lively discussion in the first panel was led by Dr Maja Bogataj Jančič, founder and head of the Slovenian Intellectual Property Institute, and co-chair of the Data Governance Working Group at the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI). The speakers focused mainly on the proposal for the Artificial Intelligence Act, which will constitute the future legal framework for the development and use of artificial intelligence in the EU. The European Commission presented the legislative proposal, and panellists discussed the content of the proposal, primarily from the perspective of the need to protect the fundamental rights and freedoms when it comes to the development and use of artificial intelligence systems. The discussion showed just how important dialogue and in-depth discussion about the legislative solutions of the proposal are.

The second panel, chaired by Gregor Strojin, Chair of the Council of Europe's Ad hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI), offered a broader, international perspective with the aim of comparing the approaches of different regional and international organisations and fostering their cooperation in this field. In addition to the regulatory activities currently underway at the Council of Europe and the EU, the OECD and UNESCO also presented their activities. The discussion highlighted the need to foster complementary cooperation among all global actors that create standards for ethical and fundamental rights-based artificial intelligence.

If, on the one hand, the greatest advantage of artificial intelligence is its efficiency and speed, it, on the other hand, entails a number of risks that must be addressed, and it must be ensured that the development and use of artificial intelligence in society is based on the respect for fundamental rights and freedoms, the rule of law and democracy.

Marjan DikaučičMinister of Justice

Marjan DikaučičMinister of Justice

In his closing speech, State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice Zlatko Ratej stressed the importance of a complementary European approach to artificial intelligence if Europe is to become synonymous with human-centred artificial intelligence. He called for close cooperation between all actors working to ensure that current and future generations are surrounded by ethical artificial intelligence that respects fundamental rights and universal human values.