AI Regulation: The EU should not give in to the surveillance industry lobbies

Although it claims to protect our liberties, the EU's draft text on artificial intelligence (AI), presented by Margrethe Vestager, actually promotes the accelerated development of all aspects of AI, in particular for security purposes. Loaded with exceptions, resting on a stale risk-based approach, and picking up the French government's rhetoric on the need for more experimentation, this text should be modified down to its foundation. In its current state it risks endangering the slim legal protections that European law holds out in face of the massive deployment of surveillance techniques in public space. On April 21, 2021 the European Commission (EC) published a regulation proposal for a "European approach" to AI, accompanied by a coordinating plan to guide member states' action for the years to come. Beyond the rethoric of the European Commission, the draft regulation is deeply insufficient in how it treats the danger that AI systems represent for fundamental freedoms.