In May/June 2020, committees of the European Parliament discussed several reports on artificial intelligence. These reports include:

• Draft report with recommendations to the Commission on a civil liability regime for artificial intelligence (rapporteur Axel Voss (DE/EPP));
• Draft report on intellectual property rights for the development of artificial intelligence technologies (rapporteur Stéphane Séjourné (FR/ALDE));
• Working document on questions of interpretation and application of international law in so far as the EU is affected in the areas of civil and military uses and state authority outside the scope of criminal justice (rapporteur Gilles Lebreton, (FR/Identity and Democracy Group));
• Draft report with recommendations to the Commission on a framework of ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, robotics, and related technologies (rapporteur Ibán García del Blanco (ES/S&D));
• ¡ Draft report on artificial intelligence in criminal law and its use by the police and judicial authorities in criminal matters (rapporteur Tudor Ciuhodaru (RO/S&D)).

The last two documents are of interest within the framework of eucrim. Rapporteur Ibán García del Blanco suggests that aspects related to the ethical dimension of artificial intelligence, robotics, and related technologies should be framed as a series of principles resulting in a comprehensive and future-proof legal framework at the Union level. He proposes a concrete text for a corresponding EU regulation on ethical principles for the development, deployment, and use of these technologies.

In addition, he proposes the establishment of a European Agency for Artificial Intelligence and a European certification of ethical compliance. The proposed regulation should be built on the following principles:

• Risk assessment of artificial intelligence, robotics, and related technologies;
• Safety features, transparency, and accountability;
• Safeguards against bias and discrimination;
• Social responsibility and gender balance;
• Environmentally friendly and sustainable artificial intelligence;
• Respect for privacy and limitations to the use of biometric recognition;
• Governance.

A main feature of the proposal is that the development, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence, robotics, and related technologies should always respect human agency and oversight as well as allow the retrieval of human control at any time (“human-centric and human-made approach”).

Rapporteur Tudor Ciuhodaru prepared a motion for an EP resolution on the use of AI in criminal matters. He stressed that AI offers great opportunities in law enforcement and criminal justice, in particular by improving working methods to combat certain types of crime. At the same time, he highlights the potential risks of AI in this area, because the use of AI considerably affects fundamental rights to liberty and security of the individual. Therefore, several core principles must be implemented in the life cycle of AI, such as:

• Algorithmic explainability and transparency;
• Traceability;
• The carrying out of compulsory fundamental rights impact assessments prior to the implementation or deployment of any AI system;
• Mandatory audits.

The rapporteur underlines that, in judicial and law enforcement contexts, the final decision always needs to be taken by a human who can be held accountable for the decisions made; the possibility of recourse to a remedy needs to be included. Facial recognition systems for law enforcement purposes are viewed critically. The rapporteur calls for a moratorium on the deployment of such systems