28/04/2017 Session
The pervasiveness of new technologies and their application is blurring the boundaries between human and machine, between reality and virtual reality, and it is “increasingly difficult for law-makers to adapt to the speed at which science and technologies evolve” and to draw up the required regulations and standards, the Assembly said today.
Adopting a recommendation based on a report prepared by Jean-Yves Le Déaut (France, SOC), the parliamentarians said the Council of Europe should consider how intelligent artefacts and/or connected devices “challenge different dimensions of human rights”.
They suggested that guidelines be drawn up on strengthening transparency, regulation by public authorities and operators’ accountability covering the creation of a common framework of standards to be complied with when a court uses AI; the need for any machine, robot or artificial intelligence artefact to remain “under human control”; and the recognition of “new rights in terms of respect for private and family life”.
The Assembly welcomed the initiative of the Council of Europe’s Bioethics Committee (DH-BIO) to organise, in October 2017, an international conference to discuss the emergence of these new technologies and their consequences for human rights, with a view to developing a Strategic Action Plan during the next biennium 2018-19. The parliamentarians also called for close co-operation with the institutions of the EU and UNESCO to ensure “a consistent legal framework and effective supervisory mechanisms at international level”.