What’s AI got to do with it: Why civil society should be engaged in the Artificial Intelligence policy making in Ukraine

On 20 November 2020 ECNL and the Centre for Democracy and Rule of Law (CEDEM) organized an online expert meeting for 30 experts from over 15 leading CSOs to discuss developments around the regulation of AI globally and in Europe. The event sought to: 

• increase the understanding of CSOs on the relation between AI, freedom of expression and human rights in general; 
• give human rights CSOs better understanding of what the Council of Europe is working on in relation to AI, 
• Discuss how can Ukrainian CSOs engage in this process, and 
• identify specific ideas for future engagement in the discussions around AI in Ukraine.

Speakers tackled multiple angles of the same issue: AlgorithmWatch presented how AI may affect freedom of expression, ECNL focused on AI regulation in Europe and CEDEM provided an overview of the regulatory developments around AI in Ukraine. 

Next steps

There was an overall consent that any AI regulation should comply with international human rights standards. In addition, while the government is engaging in a dialogue with tech companies around the future AI policies, it is important that CSOs are also part of these policy discussions. CEDEM and ECNL will continue to support partners doing so. 

We also discussed the ongoing work at the Council of Europe (CoE) Ad-Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAHAI), an inter-governmental body that is preparing a feasibility study on a regulatory framework (most likely a Convention) on AI based on the CoE’s human rights standards. Some Member States of CAHAI have offered their availability to host national multi-stakeholder consultations between February and March 2021 on the key issues of the current version of the draft feasibility study. The government of Ukraine, also a member of CAHAI, has yet to confirm whether they are also willing to host such consultation, so participants expressed interest to reach out to the Ministry of Digital Transformation and advocate that Ukraine should part in next year’s discussion of the CAHAI feasibility study at the country level.