EDPS Podcast - Final Episode!
Do All Roads Lead to Datocracy?
Technology is constantly
evolving and every second it passes its evolving even faster and their
impact on our societies is getting greater. That is why on this third
and last episode of the podcast series "Democratic Societies in the
Digital Age", organized by the EDPS and EDPB trainees, we look
at "Emerging Technologies and Future Challenges".
Consequently, on this episode we delve into aspects such
as the future of privacy, the use of technologies during the Covid-19
crisis, AI systems and its relation with human autonomy and
responsibility.
To get the best of insights on those matters,
we invited two experienced specialists on the subject: Jared
Brown, Senior Advisor for Government Affairs at the Future of Life
Institute, and Dr. Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna, Senior Counsel for Global
Privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum.
From this extremely
fruitful conversation with them, we get to talk about how it is
obviously impossible to completely predict the future of
technology and its impact, but that in order to lessen their possible
harms we need a functioning legal framework to prevent them. We also
look at the pros and cons of all these new emerging technologies,
which are even more used due to the pandemic, especially related to
data protection and privacy concerns. We tackle the debate of
accountability and responsibility of the individual when AI systems
are on the way. And we finally try to contemplate how should we face,
both as an individual and as a society, these impending issues.
This podcast is hosted by Anna Zsófia Horváth, Trainee of the
Technology and Privacy Unit at the EDPS.
This Podcast was
recorded on 11 February 2021 Speakers
Jared Brown
Jared Brown is the Senior Advisor for Government Affairs at
the Future of Life Institute, where he works to improve the safe
governance of emerging technologies both in the U. S. and globally. To
this end, he is primarily focused on influencing near-term
policymaking for the betterment of improving the long-term
trajectories of increasingly powerful technologies. He has spent his
career working at the intersection of public policy and risk
management, having previously served as an Analyst in Emergency
Management and Homeland Security Policy at the U. S. Congressional
Research Service and in homeland security at the U. S. Department of
Transportation.
"We cannot afford AI systems greater amounts
of liability protection than that which we afford human decision-
makers and human decision-makers have to retain the liability for the
behaviour of their AI systems. "
Dr. Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna
Dr. Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna is Senior Counsel for Global
Privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum, a think-tank based in
Washington DC, where she leads the work on EU data protection law and
emerging privacy and data protection law regimes around the world.
Previously she served as legal officer for the European Data
Protection Supervisor in Brussels, being part of the Court team and
contributing to the work on key files, like the GDPR, the EU-US
Privacy Shield and the EU-US Umbrella Agreement. She holds a PhD in
law from the University of Craiova (Romania), with a thesis on the
rights of the data subject and their adjudication in civil law.
"I think it is reasonable to expect some good things to come
out of technology and I think there is reason to be optimistic about
data use, as long as we are very smart about how we manage that data
use and how we ensure that human rights, fundamental rights, civil
rights are respected. "