Tribune. The European Commission unveiled its plan to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) on April 21. The goal: to frame its uses to define a third way distinct from the totalitarian practices of China and the “surveillance capitalism” of the big American technological firms. In other words, Europe intends to base its technological development strategy on ethical bases, respectful of the values enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
The repertoire of techniques grouped under the name of artificial intelligence has been the object of political envy since its inception in the 1950s. But, over the past ten years, these technologies have acquired such a power of fascination over the ruling elites that they have become a stake of power of the first order, as if the one who mastered the highest level of sophistication would inevitably and eternally subjugate all his rivals.
Limited legal framework
This phantasmic quest with a taste of the cold war, the race for the atomic bomb and the conquest of space is based on the duality of these technologies, applicable both to the civil and commercial domain as well as to the military and the police. In China as in the United States, AI clearly appears as the privileged instrument for the achievement of three major political objectives: ensuring the country’s prosperity, its socio-political stability and the projection of its power over the rest of the world. In doing so, the ethical-legal framework of AI is severely limited there, hence its intended application to Chinese social credit systems and the development of lethal autonomous weapons systems (SALA).
Between the American and Chinese powers, Europe wishes to promote a third way. AI would be erected there as an instrument of progress, at the service of competitiveness, health, environmental protection, etc. ; in short, a series of technologies compatible with the principles and values of the European Union. This is why this regulatory proposal is built around the concept of risk (“Unacceptable”, “high” …) and intends to prohibit a certain number of uses, such as behavioral manipulation, the exploitation of the vulnerabilities of people according to their age or their physical or mental handicap, or even remote and online biometric identification. ” real time “. At least, that’s what a quick read of the proposal suggests.
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