AI Regulations and the Protection of Citizens—Ordo Iuris at a Conference in Bucharest

The Director for International Outreach of the Ordo Iuris Institute, Zbigniew Przybyłowski, took part in a conference organized on April 8 at the Romanian Parliament by the Mihai Eminescu Conservative Institute, in cooperation with the Committee on Culture, Arts and Mass Media of the lower house of the Parliament of Romania. The event was titled “Strategic Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence. Protection of citizens, competitiveness, sovereignty.”

The conference organizers wanted to start a dialogue about the opportunities and risks posed by the rapid development of artificial intelligence. In particular, attention was paid to the imbalance in AI development between companies leading in this field in the United States (and, to some extent, China) and European companies.

The imbalance in the regulatory approach to this area between the United States and the European Union was discussed, given that in the U.S. the development of these technologies is currently not subject to any significant regulatory restrictions, whereas in Europe a package of regulations has been established that is intended to protect citizens from excessive risks. This difference is often seen as one of the sources of the imbalance in the development of these technologies between the U.S. and Europe (in addition to factors such as the scale of capital investment and access to the data needed to develop AI).

Many politicians and company representatives involved in developing artificial intelligence applications for the business world attended the conference. Participants in the event included:

– Mihail Neamțu, Ph.D., who is a Member of the Romanian Parliament, the Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Mihai Eminescu Institute, and the Chairman of the Committee on Culture, Arts and Media of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of Romania.

– Silivia Uscov, managing partner at a law firm;

– Pavel Popescu, Vice President of ANCOM—the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications

– Dragos-Katalin Barbu, Ph.D., from the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics, who is a lecturer at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest.

At the conference, the Ordo Iuris Institute was represented by Zbigniew Przybyłowski, who delivered the opening presentation, introducing the categories of risk created by this modern technology, drawing on the Institute’s experience in addressing the effects of previously implemented technologies and on observations of current trends in the social sphere and the labor market. He pointed out that these tools are developed by commercial, profit-driven companies originating from a very specific part of the United States, namely the San Francisco area, which is a bastion of the most left-wing ideologies. By their own account, they aim to create an artificial superintelligence (as they sometimes call it—”a digital god”) and to initiate the “AI singularity,” when artificial intelligence will self-improve at an exponential rate, and any control over it—or even understanding it—will be impossible for humans.

Putting aside the feasibility of such plans and forecasts, Zbigniew Przybyłowski pointed to the negative experiences with the implementation of the previous wave of the digital revolution, warning that artificial intelligence could exacerbate these problems—such as an epidemic of loneliness, the decline of the ability to build interpersonal relationships, a plague of pornography, and the erosion of critical thinking and independent decision-making. As initial steps to reduce risk, he proposed regulations at the nation-state level, as they are the most concerned with protecting the well-being of their citizens, rather than at the level of the European Union, which pursues the interests of supranational elites.

The Ordo Iuris International Outreach director also called for action to ensure that artificial intelligence is developed as a tool that supports the efficiency of human creative work, rather than becoming a cheap tool for replacing people. He also called for protecting freedom in the real world by abandoning tools such as programmable central bank digital currencies, AI-powered tools for mass control of speech, and the mass surveillance of citizens through tools deployed as part of the construction of so-called smart cities. He also emphasized that this technology can benefit humanity, but only if we start demanding it and enforcing it today.  At the conclusion of the conference, the participants highlighted the need for continued monitoring of the development of artificial intelligence and for protecting areas particularly vulnerable to risks arising from its proliferation.