It is our pleasure to announce that NoBIAS (https://nobias-project.eu/) and NL4XAI (https://nl4xai.eu/) are organizing the European AI Regulation Week from 5th Oct to 8th Oct 2021. We will host three panel discussions on socio-economic impact, trust and fairness aspects of AI regulations. The event will be held in hybrid mode in the CiTIUS building, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. So, one can attend online or in-person as well. We have kept the event open to all but subject to prior registration. You can find more details on the event below. Feel free to forward it to your colleagues and help us spread the word.

European AI Regulation Week (5-8 October 2021)

Event webpage: https://aia-week.pages.citius.usc.es/

Technology is moving faster than ever, with Artificial intelligence (AI) at the forefront in reshaping the world and changing the lives of people and society.

AI is not only one more technology, it is more and more part of our daily lives. Interacting with your digital assistant, asking to reproduce your favourite music, employing corrective text to help you to write an efficient email or using navigation apps which reroute you due to traffic and construction is no longer the realm of fantasy.

Due to its high-tech innovations, AI can bring a wide range of economic and societal benefits across the entire spectrum of social, economic and environmental sectors. At the same time, due to its faster growth and increasing applications and capabilities, AI entails a number of potential risks, such as privacy, inequality, opaque decision-making, fairness and bias or safety.

Recently, the European Commission has promoted several initiatives to set up the principles of a trustworthy and secure AI. In 2019 the high-level expert group on AI presented Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence. Two years later, on 21st April 2021, the European Commission published a regulatory framework to monitor AI, laying down harmonised rules on AI, the so-called Artificial Intelligence Act.

In addition, EU Member States have also understood that they need to keep up with AI progress. Many already adopted national AI strategies, while others are in the final drafting phase. Given that a European-centred approach to AI is essential, the EU has put in place measures to strengthen coordination mechanisms and to provide analysis and studies through the creation of AI Watch.

The aim of this workshop is to raise awareness and stimulate the debate related to AI regulation. These days of general discussion on AI regulation are open to the public and will have a multi-stakeholder approach, bringing together the private sector, academia, civil society, and governments representatives.

The event will be structured in three thematic interactive panels. The panels will run over 3 days. Each panel will have about 2h30 of duration. The event will run in hybrid mode, with attendants in person and remotely.

Panel 1: October 5, 16:30 – 19:00 CEST
“Socio-economic impact of AI regulation”
The first panel aims at discussing the EU approach to AI regulation. It will be articulated around the EU regulation framework and its capacity to address the specific challenges in order to optimise the potential benefits of AI, particularly for the industrial competitiveness in an international environment, while mitigating the potential negative impact for the society.

Panel 2: October 7, 16:30 – 19:00 CEST
“Building trust through Explainable AI complying with the European AI regulation”
The second panel aims for assessing the EU regulatory framework capacity to meet the need of building trustworthy AI that is beneficial to people. Specific focus will be placed on explainability issues.

Panel 3: October 8, 10:30 – 13:00 CEST
“A human-centric approach to AI: Fairness in agreement with European values and regulation”
The third panel will take a critical eye to how the proposed EU regulation can prevent biased AI. The focus is on fairness and bias detection and mitigation.