The regulation of artificial intelligence in the context of the European Commission's priorities

Abstract

Based on the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) and its understanding of European Union law, documentary and institutional reference points are presented to raise some reflections on the subject as a regulatory focus and its links with the values of the Union and fundamental rights.Organizations in recent years, due to Digital Transformation, have undergone a massive r(evolution) at the social, economic, and technological levels. This wave of transformed enterprises is achieved by technology enablers, often referred as digital transformation (DT) enablers which include (1) cloud, (2) mobile, (3) social, and (4) big data – analytics. Innovation accelerators like IoT, Robotics, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Cognitive Systems and Next-Generation Security and Artifical Intelligence are often also playing a part in this process of digital transformation. AI can be defined as "the theory and development of computer systems capable of performing tasks that normally require human intelligence". So, Artificial intelligence refers to systems or machines that mimic human intelligence to perform tasks. Tasks that they can iteratively improve based on the information they collect. in this frame, soon, AI technologies will have a significant impact in many areas of the working world, namely medicine, law, or accounting.In this context, the reflection/question to be asked is whether the use of artificial intelligence is correct. This requires a deeper understanding of law in an algorithmic world to provide individuals with effective rights against unfair and socially detrimental artificial intelligence applications and simultaneously inform organizations with the point of view of justice in the use of AI. The discussion on the need for regulation of artificial intelligence arises in European Union law at least since 2018 for the creation of institutional documents from the outset in search of a legal definition for AI. Some path was followed until the proposed regulation of 2021, for a European Parliament and Council Regulation establishing harmonized rules on artificial intelligence (document COM/2021/206 final of 21.04.2021). And it has been developed because it was assumed as a priority by the European Commission in its 2019-2024 composition, as well as in the rotating presidencies of the Council of the Union, as was the case of the recent Portuguese presidency on 1st semester of 2021.After a doctrinal framework and resorting to European Union documentation through a methodology of document analysis, we seek to frame this matter in the Commission's priorities, either in legislative acts or in soft law documents.Various electronic addresses are also used, for access and as a source, since the use of computer platforms is, after all, the basis of the focused subject. Thus, despite the debatable academic value, the institutional addresses are made available here, which will be an effective form of access and represent the execution and exercise of some of the ideas put forward by the authors.