Francesca Bria was Barcelona’s digital commissioner and now, among other positions, she is a high-level advisor to the New European Bauhaus. He answers from his home in Rome, after speaking at the inaugural conference of the European Center for Algorithmic Transparency in Seville.
Regulating and governing AI to address present and future harm is crucial and it is not too late… the time is now. Thousands of tech experts and academics have called for a temporary moratorium due to security concerns. The unauthorized use of copyrighted material in AI-generated music and the collision of art and AI in landmark litigation further highlight the need for effective government oversight. The motivations for banning ChatGPT in Italy are clear: they suspended the service because the mass collection of personal data is carried out illegally to train their AI algorithms, violating people’s privacy. However, the regulation must take place on a European scale.
The European way should achieve a balance between regulation, innovation and the public interest. The European Parliament will soon debate the Artificial Intelligence law, which is, mind you, the first comprehensive regulation of AI systems in the world. The law includes notable aspects such as risk-based categorization and prohibition of certain AI practices. It specifies transparency and security requirements, as well as public database systems for societal scrutiny.
AI companies may face similar challenges in the future. As AI systems take root in various sectors and in everyday life, it is crucial to prevent the companies that own these systems from spreading harmful content or encouraging discrimination and misinformation on a large scale. It is obvious that we should not leave these types of critical technologies alone in the hands of the big tech companies. It is necessary to propose democratically governed alternatives.
Well, I guess the real attempt of these companies is to lead the regulation of technology, not to be regulated… In recent years there have been cases where AI companies have fired workers who advocated for ethics within the company, including Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell, co-leaders of Google’s AI ethics team, and many more who are less public. There are some debates these companies don’t want to have, such as data protection, algorithmic biases and AI ethics, monopoly power, taxation and content moderation… We must not forget that big tech companies spent millions of dollars lobbying against the European Data Protection Regulation.
Look, cities are fundamental to the European strategy. They strengthen digital citizenship and develop and test digital tools. As a former digital head of Barcelona, ​​and now a collaborator in Hamburg and other cities, I believe I have promoted a new social pact on data. This initiative encourages the exchange of data between companies and society, ultimately transforming data into a common good. Spanish cities, with Barcelona at the forefront, must continue to be at the forefront of this critical movement to establish a citizen pact on data and artificial intelligence.
I see that our copyright system needs to be reformed. We need to be able to enforce regulation against the big platforms that use this data, information and knowledge for free, while making it easier for public institutions, artists and creators to use this data. Now we do the opposite: we make it easier for big companies to take advantage of the knowledge created by content and information producers for free, while we penalize artists and public institutions.
