EU advisory body calls for transparent approach to AI in public services
A European Union (EU) advisory body has published a set of recommendations on how to integrate AI into the public sector, highlighting the technology’s potential to “revolutionise” public services as well as the need for transparency.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) advises EU institutions on legislative proposals and policy and comprises representatives of workers’ and employers’ organisations and other interest groups.
The recommendations seek to recognise AI’s benefits while limiting its potential harms to employment levels and working conditions if “left unchecked”.
Data protection
“Though AI offers…the possibility to automate complex and repetitive processes and help make public services more accessible to citizens, generative and predictive AI algorithms may…lead to bias,” the EESC said in a statement.
It also highlighted the risks AI technologies pose to citizens’ “sensitive information”, such as their health and legal data.
It called for the introduction of AI in such sectors to be “accompanied by reinforced levels of security in data acquisition, processing and storing”.
“On top of this, public services should ensure they have the cybersecurity tools in place to prevent attacks and other data crimes,” it added.
Read more: OECD launches G7 toolkit for ‘safe, secure and trustworthy’ AI in the public sector
‘Human-in-command’
The EESC’s recommendations include measures to uphold “transparency in the decision-making processes surrounding the creation of algorithms” and guarantee what it calls “the human-in-command principle”, which recognises that services are “provided by human beings, at their own pace and with their own requirements”.
The statement said: “Public service employers should also ensure their workers are aware of the adoption of AI monitoring systems – especially for those working directly with these systems.
“This will help ensure there is transparency surrounding administrative activities involving AI: clear information surrounding the implementation of such systems is key to fostering trust regarding this new technology and its use.”
A climate of trust
In January this year, the European Commission produced a framework for AI, along with the AI Act to harmonise rules on the use of the technology. Prior to this, the EESC had recommended transparency in decision-making processes when developing algorithms.
Referring to its latest recommendations, the EESC said that “a climate of trust” fostered through “social dialogue and collective bargaining” would prove necessary to ushering AI safely into public services.
It added that any AI technologies adopted should be “regularly monitored and supported by social partners”. These partners and stakeholders would include consumer and patient rights organisations, among others.
Read more: White House directs agencies to harness AI for national security
Aligned values abroad
In September, EU member states signed the world’s first legally binding global AI treaty alongside the UK and US.
The Council of Europe praised the treaty, known as the AI Convention, for ensuring AI “aligns with our values”, including the values of its co-signatories.
The EU AI Act meanwhile came into force in August this year. The Act differs from the AI Convention’s focus on human rights by stressing instead regulations on development, deployment and operation of AI systems within the EU.
About Jack Aldane
Jack is a British journalist, cartoonist and podcaster. He graduated from Heythrop College London in 2009 with a BA in philosophy, before living and working in China for three years as a freelance reporter. After training in financial journalism at City University from 2013 to 2014, Jack worked at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters before moving into editing magazines on global trade and development finance. Shortly after editing opinion writing for UnHerd, he joined the independent think tank ResPublica, where he led a media campaign to change the health and safety requirements around asbestos in UK public buildings. As host and producer of The Booking Club podcast – a conversation series featuring prominent authors and commentators at their favourite restaurants – Jack continues to engage today’s most distinguished thinkers on the biggest problems pertaining to ideology and power in the 21st century. He joined Global Government Forum as its Senior Staff Writer and Community Co-ordinator in 2021.
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