SOLAIR 2019

Human Centric Artificial Intelligence

On 12 – 13 September 2019, the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences organized jointly with the Government Office of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic and with Microsoft the 2^nd international conference SOLAIR. The conference was organized under the auspices of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic and the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The main focus of the conference was Human Centric Artificial Intelligence.

Human centric Artificial Intelligence is based on the respect for fundamental human rights and values including the right to dignity, privacy as well as the principle of human autonomy. This concept represents the European Union’s approach to the powerful technology of Artificial Intelligence that should be used for the benefit of the whole human society.

Developing details of this concept was initiated by the European Commission that set up High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence in June 2018. Along the lines of developing an ethical approach to AI, the current laws need to be revised as well in order to facilitate responsible development and use of AI in order to provide clear rules and legal certainty. Given the borderless nature of the technology, discussions and agreements on the international level are necessary. The aim of this conference was to provide space for such discussions and to raise even more the awareness about important issues related to social aspects of this powerful technology.

The SOLAIR Conference 2019 was divided into two days. The first day focused mainly on policy issues and the following topics:

Introduction of and discussion about the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI as well as Policy and Investment Recommendations drafted by the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence in 2019 together with a business perspective on ethical issues and the future of AI
Discussion of a non-paper on desirable future regulation of AI on the EU level and discussions about future international approach to regulating AI on various levels

The second day of the conference focused on specific legal topics related to AI, such as liability, setting up legal standards for AI, autonomous mobility, compulsory licences, decision-making processes and AI etc.

The last version of the program is available here.

The online version of the program indicating titles of presentations is available here.

The conference brochure with speakers is available here.

A report from the conference published in The Lawyer Quarterly (2019, Vol. 9, No. 4, p. 389) is available here.