Jeroen van den Hoven · Keynote at the Roundtable Discussion on Artificial Intelligence, European Parliament Library, Brussels
Jeroen van den Hoven recently participated in a roundtable meeting organized by The European Parliament, where he urged the adoption of responsible innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address in a productive way the ethical challenges posed by generative AI and Large Language Models.
The discussion highlighted concerns about the loss of both confidence and trust in knowledge institutions and how it could affect democracy as AI, especially generative models like ChatGPT, makes it difficult for non-experts to distinguish between reliable and unreliable information.
Jeroen van den Hoven stressed the importance of designing for the very conditions of human responsibility in the age of AI. If the conditions for taking responsibility are undermined, the whole idea of responsibility will be even more problematic in its application than it already is.
“Europe has to make its ethics work in the Age of AI”
Privacy and ethical considerations will take on a different form in the age of AI and Big Data as they will give rise to immodest claims to know individuals better than they know themselves. The discussion emphasized the importance of recognizing and respecting the inherent subjectivity of human experiences and respecting individuals’ right to privacy.
The speech concluded with a call – echoing Paul Nemitz – for Europe to lead in establishing a new culture of technology and business development, focusing on human rights, the rule of law, and democracy by design. Jeroen van den Hoven highlighted the core idea of Designing for our values as a part of the concept of Responsible Innovation with AI. He suggested that it is essential for Europe to turn its ethical ideals into requirements for design and development of new technologies and innovations.
This article first appeared in EBU Magazine #12 – Artificial Intelligence (Spring 2024). Download the full issue as PDF or browse all issues.