European Union lawmakers are moving to ban the use of remote biometric monitoring for general law enforcement purposes. But that hasn’t stopped French parliamentarians from voting to deploy AI to monitor suspicious activity in public spaces during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On Thursday, Congress approved a plan to use automated behavioral surveillance in public spaces during games, ignoring objections from about 40 lawmakers who wrote an open letter denouncing the proposal. The vote followed earlier approval by the French Senate. (via Politico.)
The 2024 Olympic Games will be held in Paris from July 26th to August 11th.
The EU AI law is a risk-based framework for regulating the application of AI, Use of “real-time” remote biometric authentication systems in publicly accessible spaces for law enforcement purposes — the original draft, with the exception of: Certain potential crime victims (such as missing children).for preventionA specific material and imminent threat to life or physical security or a terrorist attack.”or specific perpetrator or suspect of a criminal offence. Although the MEP has called for a more comprehensive ban.
Critics of the French plan suggest it goes far beyond the limited law enforcement exceptions allowed in the draft. In other words, it uses unproven AI to identify ambiguous things as suspicious behavior.
In a statement, Patrick Breyer, a member of the European Parliament with the Pirate Party, lashed out at the use of what he called “error-prone” and invasive technology, stating: Public spaces to look for “abnormal behavior” are creating a new reality of mass surveillance unprecedented in Europe. I hope the courts will overrule this indiscriminate surveillance law that violates our fundamental rights.
“Such suspicion machines have been proven by research and experience to misreport countless citizens, to be discriminatory, to educate docile behavior, and to be utterly useless in catching criminals. As in China, social diversity is threatened and our open societies are being replaced by adaptive consumer societies.”
AI law proposed by the European Commission Nearly two years ago Negotiations by bloc agencies continue — File discussions are complicated by departments and ongoing technological developments, such as the rise of general-purpose AI like OpenAI’s GPT-4 (general-purpose AI was explicitly stated in the original proposal). The rapid changes in the AI field are therefore a challenge for regulators to create an effective and future-proof framework for regulating the application of technology).
This means that a full sweep and details of future pan-EU legislation are yet to be worked out. It may not be applied in time. That said, France’s move looks awkward to say the least, suggesting we are headed for a new era of legal friction between national security priorities and the protection of the EU’s fundamental rights. .
France is one of the EU member states that has repeatedly refused to bow to EU rules on general and indiscriminate data retention. It argues that such activities are essential to national security. Bulk data collection system. And a future wave of legal challenges to nation-state abuse of powerful AI tools for general and indiscriminate surveillance could slow down the pipeline.
Meanwhile, the French government’s plan to blanket the Paris Olympics with AI-powered surveillance could still face challenges through the country’s constitutional court. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether participants at the 2024 Summer Olympics will face having their behavior evaluated by algorithms.
CNIL, France’s data protection watchdog, has increased its interest in artificial intelligence in recent months. In January, we set up a dedicated unit to work on this technology in preparation for the upcoming EU AI law. As such, they may be interested in government plans. (We have reached out to the CNIL to ask about their views on the plan. We will update this report when we hear back.)
