The group’s exchanges take place at regular internal workshops and seminars. In principle, these events are only open for our members and are therefore not advertised on the website.
We also organize events that are more broadly open for external parties to participate. You will find any information regarding these events below and on the website’s homepage.
Next event:
Liability for Defective Products in light of Connected Devices
On the 21st of April 2022, DRAILS member Gaelle Fruy will present her research on “Liability for Defective Products in the Light of Connected Devices“
Connected devices are now ubiquitous and their use is widespread among consumers. The risks of damage caused by these emerging digital technologies are real and therefore raise the question of the applicability of the Directive 85/374/EEC (“the Product Liability Directive”). Certain inherent characteristics of these technologies bring out the limits of key notions in the current defective product liability regime (such as the definitions of “product”, “default”, “producer”) and question whether the concept of “putting into circulation” remains relevant. A reform at the European level is under way and should be completed in the third quarter of this year. The presentation aims at outlining the risks related to the use of connected devices for consumers and explaining the limits of the current legal framework while commenting on the amendments considered by the European Commission.
The workshop will be held online. Attendance is free. You can register here.
Our past public events:
Negotiating the legal status of AI systems in the EU
On the 24th of March 2022, our colleague Diana Mocanu presented her latest paper on the negotiation of the legal status of AI systems in the EU.
In it as we shall see, she discusses the ‘status question’, which concerns the matter of qualifying and categorizing artificial intelligence (AI) systems in legal terms. This question is what the presentation and eponymous article seek to contribute to answering, by proposing negotiation as the method by which an optimal answer to such a question can be arrived at. The parties involved in the negotiation and the terms being negotiated are also penned out, in an attempt to frame the apparently unsolvable theoretical debates into a practical issue of procedural creativity by situating that answer in the EU’s current context, especially with regards to the AI Act proposal.
The impact of deployment of AI technologies in the field of creative industries for copyright and related rights
On the 17th of February from 12.30 to 2pm, the first DRAILS conference of 2022 took place.
Three of our Members – Sari Depreeuw, Alain Strowel & Luc Desaunettes-Barbero – presented their research on AI and copyright in the cultural sector. Over the last few years, AI solutions have indeed been deployed in the cultural and creative sectors to assist or complete the process of creation. The reliance on AI technologies for or during the creative process might yet challenge copyright and/or related rights. Questions arise concerning the use of protected inputs for developing AI technologies or concerning the protection afforded to creative contributors in relation to the outcome of the AI-powered process. Based on several examples, the presentation provided an overview of the current issues and discussed how they could be addressed at the EU level.
Beyond explainability: justifiability and contestability of Algorithmic Decision Systems
On the 1st of June 2021 the 10th and last DRAILS conference planned for the academic year took place.
It was an opportunity to engage in a discussion with Prof. Daniel Le Métayer and Clément Henin based on their paper: “Beyond explainability: justifiability and contestability of Algorithmic Decision Systems”.
In the paper, they point out that explainability is useful but not sufficient to ensure the legitimacy of algorithmic decision systems. They argue that the key requirements for high-stakes decision systems should be justifiability and contestability, highlighting the conceptual differences between explanations and justifications, providing dual definitions of justifications and contestations, and suggesting different ways to operationalize justifiability and contestability.
The article has lately been published in the prestigious AI&Society.
Présentation des recherches de la Chaire Intelligence artificielle responsable à l’échelle mondiale de l’Université d’Ottawa
Le 19 mai notre dernière conférence publique a été l’occasion d’une présentation des recherches menées au sein de la Chaire Intelligence artificielle responsable à l’échelle mondiale de l’Université d’Ottawa.
Céline Castets-Renard (Professeure titulaire à l’Université d’Ottawa, Faculté de droit civil, titulaire de la Chaire Intelligence artificielle, responsable à l’échelle mondiale) et Éléonore Fournier-Tombs (Coordinatrice de la Chaire de recherche sur l’IA responsable dans un contexte mondial à l’Université d’Ottawa) ont présenté leur projet concernant les « Usages de l’Intelligence Artificielle dans la lutte contre la covid-19 au Sénégal et Mali »
Anne-Sophie Hulin (Post doc au sein d’ANITI [France] et de l’Université d’Ottawa) présentera un projet de recherche qu’elle conduit sur « les Fiducies de données ».
Open talk around the EU Regulation of AI
With D. De Cicco and C. Helleputte
On the 4th of May DRAILS organized an Open talk around the EU regulation of #AI, presented by DRAILS members and cybersecurity, data, and privacy experts Diletta De Cicco and Charles Helleputte.
For an overview of the subject matter, see the very helpful infographic that they prepared :
New Laws of Robotics – Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI
With F. Pasquale
On the 1st of April DRAILS was pleased to host its second public event: a discussion around the newly published New Laws of Robotics – Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI with none other than its author, Frank Pasquale, Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, NY.
Anatomy of an AI System
With R. Bellanova
On the 19th of January, our colleague Rocco Bellanova (USL-B et UvAmsterdam), gave a public presentation focussing on Crawford and Joler’s project from 2018 titled Anatomy of an AI System and published by AI Now Institute and Share Lab. This is a research and artistic project which produced a quite compelling work on “The Amazon Echo as an anatomical map of human labor, data and planetary resources”. It is available at https://anatomyof.ai.
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