‘Dangerous and discriminatory’: EU governments step up push to allow AI policing

2023-12-08 18:42:27

For the third consecutive day, legislators and governments of the European Union (EU) met this Friday in Brussels to agree to the law of artificial intelligence (AI). Yesterday a preliminary agreement was reached on the rules that will regulate systems such as ChatGPT, but today’s tense negotiations center around the biometric surveillance and to the use that police y army could make this technologya controversial possibility denounced by dozens of civil society organizations.

In June, the European Parliament agreed to ban facial recognition considering that its use could pose an “unacceptable risk” to the human rights. During the last few hours, the MEPs who are leading the drafting of the new legislation have come under strong pressure from the European Comission and by the EU governments, represented by the Spanish presidency, who now want to avoid a prohibition and open the door to an exception that allows the use of this type of IA for national security or defense purposes.

Member states are also putting pressure on legislators to lower the requirements of the law and allow both police and armed forces use AI for real-time biometric surveillance (identification of an individual through scanning of their physical features), prediction systems and emotion recognition. These last two technologies raise many suspicions among experts, since there is no evidence that they work and their consequences on the Fundamental rights can be crucial. Even more so when applied in the frontera for surveillance of people migrants.

Crossing the 30th hour of #AIAct trilogue.

Entering final stretch with focus and determination. pic.twitter.com/jClYsm2z2W

— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) December 8, 2023

The Council of the EU, a body represented by Spainalso presses for the security forces can use biometric systems to create profiles of people according to their razapolitical opinions or religious beliefs when those characteristics “have a direct relationship with a specific crime or threat.”

Civil and expert complaint

This position is seen as a threat by civil society groups, European organizations in defense of Data Protection and even from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who also called for a ban on these systems that can threaten the privacy. “This is extremist, racist, dystopian and has no place in our society,” said Daniel Leufer, technology analyst at the digital rights organization Access Now.

“The Council’s proposals would give the police the green light to use AI tools that are inherently discriminatory, allowing mass surveillance and that undermine the core of our rights and the rule of law,” reads a letter signed by 47 civil society organizations and twenty renowned experts to which El Periódico de Catalunya, from the Prensa Ibérica Group, has had access. More of 40 academics have promoted another letter of complaint.

The EC is pressuring the EP into allowing predictive policing and biometric surveillance based on race in the AI-Act. I urge all academics that are against racial profiling to sign this open letter (links below) pic.twitter.com/pZ9udbhhkk

— Ljubisa Metikos (@LjubisaMetikos) December 7, 2023

Parliament’s counterproposal

Displeasure with the Council’s proposal stalled the three-way talks during the early hours of Thursday and the lack of understanding forced the parties to pause the negotiations to resume them this Friday.

However, nothing guarantees that a definitive agreement on the law will be reached today. And the European Parliament, with the center-left Italian deputy Brando Benifei at the forefront, has closed ranks against the EU governments’ proposal and has drawn up a counterproposal. “It is not what we have always asked for, but it is better than what the Council asks for,” civil society sources explain to El Periódico de Catalunya.

After analyzing it, the Spanish presidency “seems willing to make concessions on the prohibitions, but remains rigid regarding the exemption for reasons of national security,” as reported by Luca Bertuzzi, journalist for the specialized media Euractiv.