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Strategy and policy
Reform Support

Upholding equality and non-discrimination by Equality bodies regarding the use of artificial intelligence in public administrations

Supporting reforms to strengthen labour markets and social protection systems

Funding Programme
Year
  • 2024

Upholding equality and non-discrimination by Equality bodies regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in public administrations

The project is expected to strengthen the administrative capacity of the equality bodies of Belgium, Finland, and Portugal. It focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on discrimination and equality. Through this Technical Support project, equality bodies of Belgium, Finland and Portugal are expected to increase their readiness to uncover discrimination in public administration’s deployment of artificial intelligence, including providing legal assistance to those who are discriminated against by AI, in line with the EU and Council of Europe standards and national legislation.

Context

The equality bodies of Belgium, Finland, and Portugal requested technical support to help mitigating and addressing the risks for equality and discrimination caused by AI systems, which in turn is conducive to the smooth functioning of the country’s socio-economic system as well as cooperation among data protection authorities and other supervisors; failure to timely address the issue at stake might have potentially severe repercussions on the medium-to-long-term implementation of AI given it is increasingly implemented and entails important risks for equality and avoiding discrimination in certain grounds/fields, that is prohibited under EU equality legislation and it is included in the AI Act. In this context, the technical support is relevant for the equality bodies of Belgium, Finland, and Portugal in the advancement of their digital skills, the digitalisation of public services and the use of a fair and non-discriminatory AI.

Support Delivered

At the end of this Technical Support project, the Equality bodies of Belgium, Finland, and Portugal are expected to:

  • Become equipped with the tools and knowledge to detect and address discrimination resulting from the use of AI systems through their mandates, for example, as Article 77 bodies of the EU AI Act;
  • Become capable to provide policy recommendations to authorities and decision-makers in relation to the use of AI;
  • Have an increased awareness on the risks and opportunities of AI in upholding equality and non-discrimination and to have shared knowledge and good practices produced by the project to relevant public administration and supervisory bodies across the EU.

Expected results

The project will reach its goal by:

  • Producing analyses, policy guidelines and action plans to support the equality bodies of Belgium, Finland, and Portugal with the knowledge of the current use of AI by public administration and the EU and international good practices deployed for AI oversight, and by promoting equality in the evolving technical and regulatory landscape of AI;
  • Training equality bodies of Belgium, Finland, and Portugal as well as, when relevant public administration and stakeholders to increase technical knowledge and awareness of AI and equality;
  • Developing an 'assessment protocol', tailored to the three national contexts, to assess cases of discrimination resulting from AI systems.

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