‘Europe’s digital leadership: can AI and privacy co-exist?’

World Economic Forum - Affiliate Session Thursday 23 January, 15:00-16:00 CET Ice Village, Dome A Livestream

Opening discussion:

followed by a panel with:

moderated by Alice Gast.

Artificial Intelligence is a key driver of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and will fundamentally reshape the world’s economies. Different regional models and regulations around the collection, use, and sharing of data will impact the development of AI and data-driven services. In particular, Europe’s shift towards stricter privacy rules and individual control over their data has been said to risk stifling AI innovation. Recently developed techniques enabling the re-identification of anonymous data will cause further tightening the rules around the use of personal data for AI. Privacy engineering and a long-anticipated shift towards individual control over their data might, however, rebuild trust and ensure competition online, ultimately creating a secure, inclusive, and trustworthy data economy and a collectively bright digital future. What does the future of AI hold?

On one hand, Europe’s shift towards stricter privacy rules risks stifling AI innovation, while others have argued that privacy laws are helping tech giants retain or even gain market share over competitors. New techniques enabling the re-identification of anonymous data are likely to further tighten the rules around the use of data for the training of AI algorithms.

On the other hand, privacy laws and potential future competition rulings in the US and Europe will enable individuals to gain control over their data through portability and interoperability mechanisms. This, coupled with the trust enabled by strong privacy legislations and new modern privacy engineering techniques, could help create a trustworthy, inclusive, and competitive data economy centred around individuals’ rights.

Blogpost by Alice Gast on the panel.

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