AI, MEPs call for citizen involvement in drafting ethical codes

Members of the European Parliament Brando Benifei, Svenja Hahn, Katerina Konečná, Sergey Lagodinsky, Kim Van Sparrentak, Axel Voss and Kosma Złotowski sent a letter to the EU AI Office calling for greater inclusion of civil society and stakeholders in the drafting of ethical codes for general-purpose artificial intelligence (AI). The MEPs expressed doubts about the drafting process of the codes.

The letter was published by the Politico Morning Tech website. The missive expressed concern about the Commission’s plan to initially involve only AI model providers, stressing the importance of an inclusive process involving diverse voices from business, civil society, academia and other stakeholders.

Legislators have called on the AI Office to adhere to the requirements of the AI Act to involve these groups along with AI model providers, without unbalancing the current regulatory process.

According to Eliza Gkritsi, Tech Editor at Euractiv, the European Commission intends to allow AI model providers to draw up codes of practice for AI Act compliance, with civil society organizations playing a consultative role. The Commission could grant these codes Europe-wide validity through an implementing act. In short, it will be interesting to see whether consultations will be enough to ensure that there is a civil society imprint on AI standardization, or whether the process will instead turn out to be purely formal.