HUDERIA: the EU tool to minimize the impact of AI on human rights

It exists; and many companies and international organizations are already preparing and adopting methodologies and tools to evaluate the impact that different information systems artificial intelligence may have on human rights and democracy and to minimize the risks of new technological realities.

And among the pioneers in launching one of these tools is the Council of Europe, the supranational organization that brings together 46 states – including the 27 of the European Union – that has launched and made available to companies and public institutions and administrations its own tool to evaluate these risks, to mitigate them and even to eliminate them.

The tool has been named “HUDERIA” (acronym that combines the English acronym of the words Human Rights; Democracy; Rule of Law; and Impact Assessment) and the promoters of the initiative have valued that it will allow the risks of artificial intelligence to be evaluated to guarantee that its use is efficient, ethical, safe and reliable.

The Spaniard Mario Hernández is a professor of Constitutional Law at the Complutense University of Madrid and chairs the Artificial Intelligence Committee of the Council of Europe, the body that launched the Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence, which has become the first legally binding international treaty in this area and which has already been signed by numerous countries, including the United States, the European Union or the United Kingdom – although it is pending ratification in each state.

The “false dichotomy” between regulation and development

In statements to EFE, Mario Hernández assured that very specific legislation will be necessary that addresses all the challenges, risks and problems that the new technological reality may raise, but he has ruled out the “false dichotomy” that in his opinion exists about whether to establish a Very rigorous and complete regulation can act as a brake on its development.

The Agreement promoted by the Council aims to ensure that artificial intelligence systems are “fully compatible” with human rights, democracy and the rule of lawnoted Mario Hernández, and assured that the “Huderia” tool will allow the identification of contexts and applications in which the deployment of these systems could pose risks.

The head of the Council observed that several international organizations already have their own tools and methodologies, but highlighted the added value of the one developed by the Council of Europe because it combines technical aspects of AI, social, political and cultural contexts, and the entire legal heritage. of this supranational body in matters of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.

“The more impact an artificial intelligence system has on people’s rights, the higher and stricter the standards and obligations that developers must meet must be,” said Mario Hernández, and reported that the Council of Europe is already working with the Alan Turing Institute – the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence – for implementation.

AI before Trump’s new mandate

Faced with the doubts raised by the fact that there are countries or regions in the world that are much better at guaranteeing the protection of human rights, Mario Hernández pointed out that this happens in all areas and not only in that of new technologies and artificial intelligence. , and has influenced the risk of these differences occurring within Western societies themselves.

And in that sense he expressed his doubts about the turn that the new US administration can take with Donald Trump, and that A technology “as powerful” as artificial intelligence can be used without clearly addressing the risks it may entail for human rights and democracy.. “The Biden administration took this into account; The new one, I don’t know where it’s going to go.”

The president of the Ethics Committee of the Council of Europe is in any case certain that the benefits of artificial intelligence will be greater than the problems but has stressed that the risks and harms “can be very serious, lethal”, and that “responsible” democracies must address and avoid them.

Mario Hernández stated that the AI ​​phenomenon has had “an exponential emergence”, and he framed generative artificial intelligence in this emergence, but he also said that this technology “is going to be a joke” compared to what big technology companies are already preparing. and the developers, in reference to AI “agents”, an evolution of artificial intelligence that may have a capacity for completely autonomous action and outside of human intervention.