The EU, UK, US, and Israel signed the world’s first treaty protection human rights in AI technology in a ceremony in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Thursday (5 September), but civil society groups say the text has been watered down.
The Framework Convention on artificial intelligence and human rights, democracy, and the rule of law was adopted in May by the Council of Europe, the bloc’s human rights body.
But after years of negotiations, and pressure from countries like the US who participated in the process, the private sector is largely excluded from the Treaty, leaving mostly the public sector and its contractors under its scope.
The request was “presented as a pre-condition for their signature of the Convention,” said Francesca Fanucci, Senior Legal Advisor at ECNL and representing the Conference of INGOs (CINGO), citing earlier reporting by Euractiv.
Andorra, Georgia, Iceland, Moldova, Norway, and San Marino also signed the treaty.
The treaty has been written so that it does not conflict with the AI Act, the EU’s landmark regulation on the technology, so its signature and ratification is not significant for EU member states, Fanucci said.
“It will not be significant for the other non-EU State Parties either, because its language was relentlessly watered down and turned into broad principles rather than prescriptive rights and obligations, with numerous loopholes and blanket exemptions,” she added.
“Given the vague language and the loopholes of the Convention, it is then also up to states to prove that they mean what they sign – by implementing it in a meaningful and ambitious way,” said Angela Müller, who heads AlgorithmWatch’s policy and advocacy group as executive director.
Ensuring that binding international mechanisms “don’t carve out national security interests” is the next important step, Siméon Campeos, founder and CEO of SaferAI, told Euractiv.
Carve-outs for national security interests were also discussed in the negotiations.
The signatories are also to discuss and agree on a non-binding methodology on how to conduct impact assessment of AI systems on human rights, the rule of law and democracy, which EU states will likely not participate in given they are implementing the AI Act, said Fanucci.
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Source: EU, UK, US, Israel sign world’s first AI Treaty – Euractiv
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