A boost for innovation and anti-discrimination

Today, the European Commission presented its digital strategy, "A Europe fit for the digital age", data strategy and for the first time presented a strategy on artificial intelligence and against discrimination. 

Kim Van Sparrentak MEP, Green/EFA Group Member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, comments on the digital strategy:

"As Europe we need to stop turbo-charged tech capitalism, this digital strategy is a step in the right direction. By making a distinction between low- and high-risk applications of AI, we can drive innovation in the EU. The digital strategy means that AI that poses limited risks to security and discrimination can be used for purposes that can benefit the public good, such as climate protection, sustainability, medicine or the green industrial transition."

"The European Commission is setting new standards in protection against discrimination by pre-screening high-risk applications to exclude discrimination on the basis of skin colour and gender when granting loans, selecting applicants or taking out insurance. However, supervision of these new applications by national authorities will be problematic, because only at the European level would supervision be adequate enough to deal with global suppliers."

Marcel Kolaja MEP, Member of the Pirate Party and Greens/EFA group coordinator in the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, comments:

"The EU should give targeted support to European IT companies and ensure technology sovereignty by incentivising open, decentralised and privacy-friendly business models. Facebook users, for instance, should be enabled to switch providers while maintaining their existing contacts."

"The EU Commission should urgently introduce a moratorium on mass surveillance through facial recognition and behavioural control instead of paving the way for it. In a free society, we cannot tolerate constant surveillance, mass false reports and systematic discrimination."