Regulating AI Against Discrimination: From Data Protection Legislation to AI-Specific Measures

Various legislation regarding data protectionData protection acknowledges the right to protection of personal dataProtection of personal data as fundamental human rightHuman rights and introduces certain legal obligations to people who have access to personal dataPersonal data to prevent this dataData to be used without data subjectData subject’s knowledge and even in some cases their consent. Processing personal dataPersonal data by automated decision-makingAutomated decision making (ADM) systemsSystem bears the risk of discriminationDiscrimination. Especially, when these ADM systemsSystem use Artificial IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence (AI) (AI) and machine learningMachine learning technologiesTechnology, natural persons’ dataData may be fed into the systemSystem to train the model. Hence, natural persons’ personal dataPersonal data constitutes a basis for ADM systemsSystem’ decisions. Data protection legislationData protection legislation includes certain general principles and measures to prevent misjudgments and discriminationDiscrimination. In the scope of these principles and measures, data processingData processing activity shall be adequate, relevant, and limited in relation to the intended purposes, “privacyPrivacy by design” and “privacyPrivacy by default” principles and objection mechanisms regarding negative decisions taken exclusively by ADM systemsSystem shall be implemented, accountabilityAccountability and risk-based approach shall be considered. On the other hand, data protection legislationData protection legislation may not be sufficient to eliminate all the risks and threats of AI. Hence, specific regulations, guidelines, and recommendations addressing AI are being drafted.