The Council of Europe is addressing the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on human rights, democracy and the rule of law through an inclusive multi-stakeholder process including several activities currently ongoing in the field.

On 26 and 27 February 2019, a high-level conference was co-organised by the Finnish Presidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers and the Council of Europe on the "Impacts of artificial intelligence development on human rights, democracy and the rule of law". The overall aim of the Conference was to engage in a critical, open and inclusive discussion on how to address AI development to maximise benefits for society and minimise risks to human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

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On 13 February 2019, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (the organisation’s decision-making body) adopted a declaration on the manipulative capabilities of algorithmic processes warning about the risks for democratic societies resulting from the possibility to employ such tools to manipulate and control not only economic choices, but also social and political behaviours.

• The Committee of Ministers encourages Member States to assume their responsibility to address this growing threat by taking a number of steps. These include appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure that effective legal guarantees are in place against illegitimate interferences and to empower users by promoting critical digital literacy skills.

• The Declaration emphasises the need to assess the regulatory frameworks related to political communication and electoral processes in order to safeguard the fairness of elections and to ensure that voters have access to comparable levels of information across the political spectrum, and are protected against unfair practices and manipulation.

• Finally, the Declaration stresses the significant power that technological advancement confers to those – be they public entities or private actors – who may use algorithmic tools without adequate democratic oversight or control, and underlines the responsibility of the private sector to act with fairness, transparency and accountability under the guidance of public institutions.

The declaration is part of the deliverables entrusted to the Committee of experts on Human Rights Dimensions of automated data processing and different forms of artificial intelligence (MSI-AUT) which is one of the two running Committees under the supervision of the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI) of the Council of Europe.

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On 28 January 2019, on the occasion of the Data Protection Day, the Committee of the Council of Europe's data protection treaty “Convention 108” has published Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence and Data Protection. The guidelines aim to assist policy makers, artificial intelligence (AI) developers, manufacturers and service providers in ensuring that AI applications do not undermine the right to data protection.

• High-level CoE Artificial Intelligence Conference page
• Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner speech on the occasion of the AI conference
• Press release on the declaration on the manipulative capabilities of algorithmic processes
• Press release on the Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence and Data Protection

Source: Council of Europe Website