Recommender Systems Under European AI Regulations

The European Commission (EC) has acknowledged the importance artificial intelligence (AI) plays in forming Europe's future, identifying AI as the most strategic technology of the 21st century.a With a recent proposal on a Regulation Laying Down Harmonised Rules on Artificial Intelligenceb (EU Regulatory Framework for AI), the EC aims at introducing the first comprehensive legal framework on AI, which will identify specific risks for AI, provide a collection of high-risk application domains, propose specific requirements that AI systems should meet when used in such domains, and define obligations for users and providers (U.S. regulatory development relating to AIc). What clearly emerges from these efforts is the need for an AI that behaves in a responsible way. A clear and globally accepted definition of responsibility for AI systems is still under development, but will likely include notions such as fairness, security and privacy, explain-ability, safety, and reproducibility. Although safety and reproducibility are fundamental issues in AI research and its industrial application, we will not cover them here since they are requirements in many areas of technology, therefore not specific to AI.