Presentation
In the last few years, we have seen widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) both by private and public agencies. Increasingly, AI is used to make important decisions including whom to hire for a job, what unemployment benefits someone gets, predicting where or when a crime might occur, whether a defendant is likely to re-offend and ought to be denied bail, how long a person might be in jail, whether someone is at risk of cancer, or who sees an advertisement for a specific job. While these uses generate some societal gains, they also raise several concerns about the fundamental rights of individuals due to the lack of transparency of the systems, risks of discrimination, and manipulation.
Despite the heightened risks to fundamental rights, AI governance discourse has primarily focused on ethical frameworks and a patchwork of data and consumer protection rules. This is changing, and we are now seeing countries enacting laws specifically targeting AI. For example, in April 2021, the European Commission presented a proposal for a Regulation on AI. This is the first initiative towards a comprehensive legal framework on AI in the world and aims to guarantee the highest level of protection for fundamental rights and safety while promoting innovation. In this talk, we will look at some of the challenges to fundamental rights resulting from the increasing deployment of AI and how the draft EU AI Act tries to tackle some of the concerns.
Speaker
Dr. Samson Esayas is an associate professor at BI Norwegian Business School with teaching experience in a wide range of topics, including privacy and data protection, LegalTech, internet governance, and EU competition law at BI, the University of Oslo and Queen Mary University of London. His research focuses on the interplay between law, technology and markets as regulatory tools, with a particular emphasis on the intersection between data privacy and competition law. His PhD thesis addressing these issues has won His Majesty the King’s Gold Medal, which is awarded to ‘an outstanding young researcher who has provided vital contribution to his/her field of research’ based on dissertations assessed at the University of Oslo.
Program
11:45 – Doors open and lunch is served
12:00 – "Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Rights: The Dawn of New Regulation", Samson Y. Esayas (Associate Professor, Department of Law and Governance, BI Norwegian Business School)
13:00 – Mingling (and goodbye)
To participate, please fill out the registration form. This way, we will not be short on food and drinks! (Registration is not binding and you are welcome to join us anyway!)
About the seminar series
Once a month, dScience will invite you to join us for lunch, soft drinks and professional talks at the Science Library. In addition to these, we will serve lunch to PhD candidates in our lounge in Kristine Bonnevies hus every Thursday. Due to limited space (40 people), this will be first come, first served. See how to find us here (download).
Our lounge can also be booked by PhDs and Postdocs on a regular basis, whether it is for a meeting or just to hang out – we have fresh coffee all day long! Read more about the series and the upcoming program here.