Discussion around AI & ethics focusing on standardization
Ethics in artificial intelligence has been a priority in Europe since European Commission’s President von der Leyen announced her political goals for 2019-2024. She set legislation for a coordinated European approach on the human and ethical implications of AI as a key topic for Europe to become a global leader in the development of secure, trustworthy and ethical artificial intelligence.
Standardization is an important strategic tool to achieve the “ecosystem of trust” Europe needs. At European and international standardization level, work on AI and ethics needs to be further developed.
The European Commission acknowledges the role standardization needs to play in its recently proposed Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). It was already highlighted also in the EU White paper on “Artificial Intelligence - A European approach to excellence and trust” adopted in 2020, as well in the “ethics guidelines for trustworthy AI” from the independent high-level expert group on artificial intelligence set up by the European Commission.
At standardization level, CEN and CENELEC AI Focus Group has proposed approaches for AI Ethics from a European standardization perspective, work on AI is also being carried out at European level by ETSI and at international level by ISO and IEC, as well as by other standardization actors such as IEEE.