European Union Warns Of Risks Of Future Use Of Artificial Intelligence

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JAKARTA - The European Union's (EU) human rights monitoring agency has warned of the risks of using artificial intelligence (AI) in police prediction, medical diagnosis and targeted advertising.

The warning comes as the EU considers rules next year to address the challenges posed by artificial intelligence technology.

While AI is widely used by law enforcement agencies, rights groups say it is also being abused by authoritarian regimes for discriminatory and mass surveillance. Critics also worry about violations of people's fundamental rights and data privacy rules.

The Vienna-based European Union Human Rights Agency (FRA), in a report issued Monday, December 14, urged policymakers to provide more guidance on how existing rules apply to the use of AI technology and ensure that the rules for future AI technology front protects fundamental rights.

"AI is not perfect. It is made by humans and humans can make mistakes. That is why people need to be vigilant when using AI, how it works and how to challenge automated decisions," said FRA Director Michael O'Flaherty in a statement.

The FRA report comes as the European Commission, the executive of the European Union, considers legislation next year to cover a number of sectors deemed high risk, such as the healthcare, energy, transportation and some public sectors.

The EU human rights body said rules for the use of AI must respect all fundamental rights, with safeguards to ensure that and include guarantees that people can challenge decisions made by the technology.

Additionally, according to the agency, companies should be able to explain how their systems make decisions for AI.

The European Union's human rights body also said there should be more research on the potentially discriminatory effects of AI so that Europe can protect against it. The European Union should further explain how data protection rules apply to these technologies.

The FRA report is based on more than 100 interviews with public and private organizations already using AI, with analysis based on AI usage in Estonia, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Spain.