The US government is lobbying Council of Europe members to weaken an international treaty on human rights and artificial intelligence software by exempting private vendors from compliance.
Diplomats are meeting in Strasbourg, France this week to finalize the treaty, which would require organizations using AI to respect human rights and adhere to democratic principles. But the US, a non-voting observer at the Council of Europe, appears to be close in its efforts to dissolve the treaty, Politico reported.
The US, backed by the UK, member states, and other observer states Canada and Japan, is seeking to exempt private companies from the latest draft of the treaty and focus it only on government use of artificial intelligence. Other negotiators and critics of the plan fear that this exemption would limit the effectiveness of the agreement.
The European Union, whose member states are also members of the Council of Europe, warned that exempting private companies from the rules would be “diminishing their value and sending the wrong political message that human rights in the private sphere do not deserve the same protection as,” according to an analysis from February obtained by Politico.
It is unclear why the US government wants to water down the deal when US President Joe Biden has pushed for similar goals. In October, Biden issued an executive order targeting AI security and privacy and called for an AI bill of rights, which would cover some of the same grounds as the treaty.
However, US efforts to weaken the agreement have been ongoing for several months. In January, a group of technology rights organizations began circulating an open letter to the Council of Europe urging members to reject the treaty’s restrictions.
The US and its allies want not only to exempt private companies from the deal, but some negotiators also want to exempt government users of artificial intelligence from respecting privacy, human rights and other provisions when national security is involved, according to a letter signed by more than 85 organizations and 25 individuals. Among the signatories are Access Now, AlgorithmWatch, Reporters Without Borders and Wikimedia from Germany and Switzerland.
An exemption for private companies, including large tech companies, “would result in giving blank checks to these companies instead of effectively protecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law,” the letter said. “The gutted convention will provide little meaningful protection to individuals who are increasingly subject to powerful AI systems prone to bias, human manipulation and the destabilization of democratic institutions.”
The AI Agreement calls for human review of AI decisions, prohibits discrimination by AI, and requires organizations to notify clients or users when AI makes decisions about them.
The Council of Europe, a human rights organization with 46 member states, has been working on the AI treaty for about three years.
Copyright © 2024 IDG Communications, Inc.