Debate: Digital Services Act: Improving the functioning of the Single Market - Digital Services Act: adapting commercial and civil law rules for commercial entities operating online - Digital Services Act and fundamental rights issues posed - Framework of ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, robotics and related technologies - Civil liability regime for artificial intelligence - Intellectual property rights for the development of artificial intelligence technologies
Date: MONDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2020
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

But, the thing is that the fundamental question is answered with a ‘yes’. Can we have a European model? There are other models, obviously. But the debate tonight has shown with all clarity that no one wants just to leave that to the state. Neither will anyone just say, ‘well, let business take care of this’. Now this has been a promise: that democracy will shape our society. That promise has been given tonight by everyone who has been taking the floor, that in our democracy we will shape this – for the state, for the business community, to serve the real asset here, which is the individual citizen, and that I find extremely promising.  Obviously, the level of complexity is quite high. There’s been a lot of very nuanced speeches, trying to balance that on the one hand, there are so obviously things that should not be out there, because it’s illegal in the offline world, while at the same time, no one wants censorship, no one wants the state to control. No one wants to limit a debate that can be free and nurture our democracy and that, of course, is the thing that we will have to grapple with in the months to come.  I just read an article in a Danish paper, in Danish, about artificial intelligence and part of that article was written by AI, in my mother tongue, on a rather complex subject, and I couldn’t distinguish what was written by the authors and what was written by AI. Maybe the grammar was slightly better by the AI – I wouldn’t know, but it’s just to say that when we’re in a world where artificial intelligence can write an op-ed, can write a poem, can write music, and we cannot tell the difference anymore, then it’s about time that democracy catches up with technology. Otherwise we cannot stand by the promise that the humans are the empowered here and that the machine is a servant.  The thing is that now the digital world, the online world, is not another world. It’s our world. For the children who are being bullied, it is just as real as when it was in the schoolyard back in the day. For the people who decide not to participate in democracy because of the hate speech online, it is as real as if someone has threatened them offline. This is our world and this is now, when we went to frame it, because it has matured. Back in the digital stone age, in the year 2000, of course, how could we have known any better? But this is the time and with this level of complexity, what a pleasure it is to see that we then discuss the principles. What are the fundamentals? That humans are in control; that transparency, responsibility, accountability, is what we want to work with; that you should know your customer; that you should be able to identify yourself to create the trust that people know who they are dealing with and you know that you are in control of the data that you create.  The principle of freedom, of fair markets. I think that is the core of the debate today and then, of course, the obvious: that the legislation that we will discuss and hopefully decide upon, should be implemented, should be enforceable, so that these promises are not empty, that it’s not just more words on paper, but that it’s real rights for citizens, for businesses, in the real world, to make the best possible use of digital technologies. It is, of course, a framework of legislation. It is the Digital Services Act, the Digital Market Act, it’s the legislation on artificial intelligence. It will be the Data Governance Act and the Data Act and the European Digital Identity, just to mention the most obvious things.  That should create ecosystems of excellence – because Europe has so much to offer. We have a culture of doing this and we will do it again. This is how we can create an ecosystem of trust, so that citizens do not feel estranged to a society that they have seen in the movies and found fascinating, but never ever wanted to live in. And obviously, as was just said, this is a European debate that should be rooted in every Member State. As we have seen with all the different proposals coming in every Member State because this is not just something down in Brussels. This is grown from every Member State but it needs a European response and this response you have given tonight by a promise that democracy will make sure that we frame this.