Ours is an era of new possibilities, but also new dangers. The fourth industrial revolution means the potential for human rights violations are now greater than ever before. And nowhere are the pros and cons of society’s digital transformation more vivid than in the fierce debate on artificial intelligence regulation that’s rocking the European Union.

When IRL doesn’t quite translate

AI will alter the world radically: it’s so omnipresent that we’re often oblivious to it. Anything that touches our lives so dramatically needs to be regulated. As tech is being designed, the rules that govern it are being written. In the EU, a founding principle guiding rule writing is that nothing should be permitted in the digital world that’s not permitted in the real world. Although this is an uncontroversial principle, in practice it is impossible to directly translate laws that have been designed for the physical world.

It’s a balancing act

Regulators must ask themselves two questions. First, does the new technology violate any  fundamental human rights? Second, does the regulatory framework hamper Europe’s potential to innovate? There is a genuine risk of over-regulation, which would undermine innovation and competitiveness, and the whole continent would lose out in the long term. Yet under-regulation would endanger consumer rights. Clearly, a balance must be struck.

The back of the pack

A …