4.3 THE ETHICS OF AI AI ETHICS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION In the context of the EU, there have been several noteworthy recent developments, through which the European Commission has sought to address these ethical, legal and social issues, and to ensure that AI systems remain human-centric and are, at all times, aimed at maximizing the benefits of this technology while preventing or minimizing its risks. In April 2018, 24 Member States of the EU signed a Declaration on Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence, through which the need to develop an adequate legal and ethical framework and to cooperate to this end were identified25. Following this, in June 2018, the European Commission established a High-Level Expert Group on AI (AI-HLEG) – an independent group comprised of 52 eminent representatives from academia, industry and civil society. The group was tasked with elaborating recommendations on future-related policy development and on ethical, legal and societal issues related to AI, including socio-economic challenges. To this end, the AI-HLEG released its Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI in April 201926. While the European Commission is not the first player to release such guidelines, the Ethics Guidelines marks the first government-led initiative in this domain and is a significant step toward bringing not only the human-centric approach to AI to the global fore but also building international consensus around the notion of AI ethics. According to the Ethics Guidelines, for AI to be considered trustworthy, it must, throughout its entire lifecycle, be: 1) Lawful, which entails complying with all applicable laws and regulations; 2) Ethical, which aims at ensuring alignment with ethical norms, and 3) Robust, both from a technical and social perspective. The development of trustworthy AI systems should be based upon established fundamental values, such as the respect for human dignity, democracy, justice and rule of law, while, at the same time, guaranteeing the freedom of the individual and citizens’ rights in order to ensure equality and non-discrimination. On this basis, the Ethics Guidelines present four overarching ethical principles underlying the development, deployment and use of AI systems: respect for human autonomy; prevention of harm; and fairness and explicability. 25 European Union (2018). Declaration on Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/ document.cfm?doc_id=50951 26 High-Level Expert Group on AI (2019). Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/ document.cfm?doc_id=60419
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