Liability of AI applications under scrutiny in UK, Canada

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications, particularly those focused on biometric data gathering, have recently come under another round of scrutiny both in Europe and Canada. The European Commission proposed the AI Liability Directive last week, a set of rules designed to aid redress for people whose privacy was harmed by AI-powered and digital devices like self-driving cars, voice assistants and drones. According to BBC reporting, the Directive may operate alongside the EU's proposed AI Act if successfully turned into law, introducing a "presumption of causality" for those claiming injuries by AI-enabled products. In other words, individuals harmed by these systems would not have to provide technical explanations for how AI systems work but merely show how they have harmed them in practical terms. "The objective of this proposal is to promote the rollout of trustworthy AI to harvest its full benefits for the internal market. It does so by ensuring victims of damage caused by AI obtain equivalent protection to victims of damage caused by products in general," reads the text of the Directive.