The Recommendations on Data Protection in the Field of Artificial Intelligence (the "Recommendations") was published by the Turkish Personal Data Protection Authority (the "DPA")1 on its website on 15 September 2021. The scope of the Recommendations address the Developers, Manufacturers, Service Providers and Decision Makers in accordance with the Law on the Protection of Personal Data numbered 6698 and its secondary legislation (the "Law"). This is the first time that DPA has published a document regarding data protection regarding AI-based applications. The Recommendations consist of three parts, namely: (i) general recommendations; (ii) the recommendations for developers; manufacturers and service providers and (iii) recommendations for decision makers. Under the Recommendations the term Artificial Intelligence (the "AI") is defined as the human-specific abilities to be analysed and passed to machines.

On Thursday, 26 November, Prof. Andrew Murray, will deliver the Sixth T.M.C. Asser Lecture – 'Almost Human: Law and Human Agency in the Time of Artificial Intelligence'. Asser Institute researcher Dr. Dimitri Van Den Meerssche had the opportunity to speak with professor Murray about his perspective on the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence to our human agency and autonomy – the backbone of the modern rule of law. A conversation on algorithmic opacity, the peril of dehumanization, the illusionary ideal of the'human in the loop' and the urgent need to go beyond'ethics' in the international regulation of AI. One central observation in your Lecture is how Artificial Intelligence threatens human agency. Could you elaborate on your understanding of human agency and how it is being threatened? In my Lecture I refer to the definition of agency by legal philosopher Joseph Raz. He argues that to be fully in control of one's own agency and decisions you need to have capacity, the availability of options and the freedom to exercise that choice without interference. My claim is that there are four ways in which the adoption and use of algorithms affect our autonomy, and particularly Raz's third requirement: that we are to be free from coercion. First, there is an internal and positive impact. This happens when an algorithm gives us choices, which have been limited by pre-determined values – values that we cannot observe. The second impact is internal and negative. In this scenario, choices are removed because of pre-selected values.

A project team of Komeito, the junior partner in the Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling coalition, has presented to Foreign Minister Taro Kono its proposals for an international agreement to regulate robotic weapons development. Deployment of lethal autonomous weapons systems, or LAWS, cannot be overlooked in terms of international humanitarian law and ethics, according to the proposals released Monday. Komeito called for agreeing on a document, such as a political declaration or a code of conduct, within the framework of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Kono said he will refer to the proposals. Ethical issues and military advantages of such weapons have been under discussion within the framework of the convention since 2014.

Tech leaders, including Elon Musk and the three co-founders of Google's AI subsidiary DeepMind, have signed a pledge promising to not develop "lethal autonomous weapons." It's the latest move from an unofficial and global coalition of researchers and executives that's opposed to the propagation of such technology. The pledge warns that weapon systems that use AI to "[select] and [engage] targets without human intervention" pose moral and pragmatic threats. Morally, the signatories argue, the decision to take a human life "should never be delegated to a machine." On the pragmatic front, they say that the spread of such weaponry would be "dangerously destabilizing for every country and individual."