Spanish MEP Ibán García del Blanco says that artificial intelligence must always have a human-centred design.
ADVERTISEMENTArtificial intelligence (AI) must always be made to the benefit of humans, rather than work against them, an MEP has told Euronews.
Ibán García del Blanco, a member of the European Parliament's AI Committee, was speaking ahead of the European Commission's first-ever AI legislative proposal, which is set to be announced Wednesday.
The Spanish lawmaker said that AI "must always have a human-centered perspective", instead of going down the path of countries like China, which in recent years have developed the technology to build a digital system focused on mass surveillance of its citizens.
"It must always be linked to the development of human beings and of course it must also be directed towards making the benefit as social and as distributed as possible. And on the other hand, it has to be respectful of our fundamental rights," García del Blanco told Euronews.
The European Commission says that its approach to AI will be centred around "excellence and trust", which will inevitably mean more regulation.
Over-regulating AI could stop the technology from developing, however, which is why the United States is taking the opposite approach.
But Professor John Tasioulas, director of the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, told Euronews there should be a balance between both.
"Often people when they talk about overregulation they’re thinking in economic terms, that this is something that hinders economic growth, but the key thing here is economic prosperity, which is only one goal amongst others. There are also rights we have to think about and often respecting rights means limiting the economic prosperity we might otherwise have," Tasioulas explained.