In Italy, 2023’s Legislative Decree No. 36, better known as the new Public Procurement Code, opens the door to a complete automation of public contracts’ entire life cycles. In line with the techno-solutionism advocated by the Brothers of Italy (AlgorithmWatch reported in 2022), it encourages Italian contracting authorities and grantors to find “technological solutions.” It expressly advocates for using Artificial Intelligence and distributed ledgers (blockchain) to automatically define the parameters necessary for participation in a tender and to choose bids’ winners. The new rules apply to a ..read more

We at AlgorithmWatch welcome the UN’s initiative to advance recommendations for an international governance framework of AI. Why does the initiative matter? The UN with its 193 member states is the biggest international organization globally. UN guidelines – even if not legally binding – can serve as a compass for national and international policy-making. Our main concern regarding the interim report is that it construes a false balance between risks and opportunities related to AI. First of all, the report (falsely) promotes AI as a solution to many of humanity’s grave problems – such as clim ..read more

For the last three years, AlgorithmWatch has worked in coalition with a broad range of digital, human rights and social justice groups to demand that artificial intelligence (AI) works for people, prioritizing the protection of fundamental human rights. We have put forward our collective vision for an approach where “human-centric” is not just a buzzword, where people on the move are treated with dignity, and where lawmakers are bold enough to draw red lines against unacceptable uses of AI systems. Following a gruelling negotiation process, EU institutions are expected to conclusively adopt th ..read more

The halt to the system’s implementation came as a surprise even to government members. In January 2024, Catalan government’s Justice Advisor Gemma Ubasart announced in a plenary session that “the public administration could not be oblivious to the debate” around the new European regulation on Artificial Intelligence – the AI Act was ratified by the European Parliament in March – and that it was “more prudent not to continue with this project.” Eight months earlier, the justice department had launched a pilot project in the Mas d’Enric prison and allocated 200,000 euros to the French company In ..read more

Lieferando riders get instructions on their phones, with an algorithm deciding on shifts, deliveries, and even bonuses. Only Lieferando knows how these decisions are made – how the algorithm works is kept a secret. This makes it difficult or even impossible for drivers to stand up for their rights. That’s why we are launching a new survey today, in partnership with the German union Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten (NGG). We ask riders how they experience algorithmic management. How are shifts and delivery orders allocated? Do they think that the app creates a hidden score on them? Can e ..read more

AlgorithmWatch has responded to the European Commission’s draft Guidelines for online platforms on mitigating risks in elections. This document comes in the context of upcoming elections, including for the European Parliament.  However the Digital Services Act (DSA) is unlikely to be fully effective, with delays in data access powers and no transparency or guidelines on “systemic risk” assessments. This greatly limits the hoped-for ability of the DSA to help find and mitigate risks including increased polarisation, information warfare from hostile actors, and misinformation from AI chatbo ..read more

Müller, who holds a doctorate in law and has worked at AlgorithmWatch CH since 2021, is a shareholder in the German non-profit organization since February, together with Christina Elmer, Professor of Digital Journalism and Data Journalism at TU Dortmund University, and AlgorithmWatch co-founder and Executive Director Matthias Spielkamp. “The protection of human rights when dealing with algorithms and AI does not stop at national borders – and neither does our commitment,” says Müller. “I am delighted to continue contributing to the work of our great team in my role as a shareholder ..read more

The Council of Europe’s members have signed the European Convention on Human Rights, which was adopted almost 75 years ago. Now they are about to conclude another binding agreement under international law: the Convention on Artificial Intelligence (AI). This convention aims to protect human rights, democracy, and the rule of law from AI’s harmful effects. Exceptions for the private sector and “national security” However, the published draft shows: We might end up with a Convention that could not apply to companies – or in which states are at least free to choose whether to apply it to companie ..read more

At first glance, “IT-Services der Sozialversicherungen GmbH” (IT-SV) is just another software company. Few people ever heard of it, even in their home country of Austria. But IT-SV is not just another software company. It maintains the software for almost all Austrian social security services and claims to look after 8,800,000 beneficiaries – in a country of 9,030,000 inhabitants. In December, IT-SV requested bids for an array of services including speech recognition, chatbots, image analysis, and more. In total, IT-SV plans to invest €52.5m in Artificial Intelligence.  Companies are req ..read more

Miriam Al Adib is a Spanish gynecologist who lives in Almendralejo. One day last September, she found her teenager daughter in distress. Naked pictures of her and other classmates were circulating in her school’s WhatsApp groups. The pictures were fake, she said. Schoolboys had generated them, using an AI tool. Al Adib felt her daughter’s anxiety but knew immediately what to do. She posted a video on Instagram in which she reported what happened and asked victims to come forward. A few hours later, many other mothers had texted her, sharing their daughters’ experiences. They all went to the po ..read more