On November 24, 2021, during the 41st session of UNESCO’s General Conference, the “Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence” was adopted. This is the first global “standard-setting instrument” that seeks to regulate the use of AI in an ethical way, although some initiatives were taken in the European context. The project came about due to a decision made at the General Conference at its 40th session in 2019.

The European Commission’s April 2021 proposal for a Regulation aiming at harmonized rules across the EU for AI is a major legal development and the negotiations at the EU level will be particularly interesting and tough. Renaissance Numérique and AI-Regulation contribute to the debate.

On September 22nd 2021, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the Body that represents civil society organisations within the European Union, adopted Catelijne Muller’s Opinion on the EU Commission’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) proposal.

On September 14th and 15th 2021, the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union hosted a High-Level Conference on Artificial Intelligence entitled “From ambition to Action”.

On September 3rd, 2021, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali (the GPDP – Italian data protection authority), issued an official request to the local Health authority USL Roma 3, to provide information about its deploying of AI technologies to combat Covid19.

On June 29, 2021, a draft report was presented and adopted by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) on artificial intelligence in criminal law and its use by the police and judicial authorities in criminal matters.

On June 23, 2021, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) shared a joint opinion regarding the European Commission’s AI regulation proposal.

On May 27, 2021, a coalition of civil society groups including Privacy International, the Hermes Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights, Homo Digitalis and noyb, filed several claims in Europe against the U.S facial recognition firm Clearview AI.

On April 29, 2021, the French Defense Ethics Committee issued an Opinion on the integration of autonomy into lethal weapon systems. Through this work, the Committee aims to establish a clear definition of autonomy and a clear distinction between fully (LAWS) and partially autonomous lethal weapon systems (PAWLS).

In cooperation with Microsoft we organised, on April 26, 2021, a preliminary high level discussion on the rules for facial recognition and “remote biometric identification” (RBI) systems. We are posting some useful materials here

On April 16, 2021, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, the Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA), issued an unfavourable opinion on the use of the SARI Real Time system by the Ministry of the Interior, a real-time facial recognition system aiming to assist the Police Force in the management of public order and safety.

After a preleminary initiative was announced in January 2021, the European Digital Rights (EDRi) organisation and 55 others sent a new letter to Didier Reynders (European Commissioner for Justice) on April 1st, 2021 to support their demand for a specific ban on biometric mass surveillance technologies.