EU4DigitalUA, Оmbudsman Office and Mintsyfra present Artificial Intelligence Guidelines

The EU-funded EU4DigitalUA project, in close cooperation with the Ombudsman Office and the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, conducted a presentation of the first Guidelines in Ukraine on the protection of human rights and the right to privacy in the development and implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. https://ua4digitalua.dev.komanda.dev/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/guia_english_2.pdf

Nowadays Artificial Intelligence is used almost in all fields of our life, from industrial processes, and face recognition, to even public policy. AІ systems bring both benefits and challenges, and one of these challenges is the violation of privacy rights.

“Development of the Guidelines is the first step towards ethical use of AI in Ukraine. This initiative highlights the willingness not only to use the technological achievements but also use them paying special attention to personal data protection and human rights”, Аndrii Nikolaev highlights, Key Expert in Data Protection of the EU4DigitalUA project.

The Guidelines are methodological material dedicated to the influence of Artificial Intelligence on human rights and also to the approaches to the regulation of this sphere according to the requirements of national legislation and international standards. 

“Understanding of the principles developers and companies working with AI are guided by is important to build trust in electronic services in Ukraine. The Guidelines will help to reinforce the awareness and avoid violations of privacy rights”, Representative of Commissioner for Information Rights of the Ukrainian Parliament Secretariat of Commissioner for Human Rights Yuliia Derkachenko highlights. 

These Guidelines represent the next step towards the comprehensive regulation of Artificial Intelligence in Ukraine, giving some general recommendations to resolve potential problems and use the opportunities proposed by AI. Further steps foresee the development of more specific guidelines dealing with separate questions related to AI.

“Human-centricity in creating AI products must become a new priority in artificial intelligence. Now our task is to boost the development of technology and simultaneously create safeguards that will keep it under human control. The presented recommendations are part of the implementation of this plan,” states Oleksandr Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.

Further steps include developing more specific guidelines focusing on individual AI issues. We expect to develop and implement a methodology for assessing the AI impact on human rights, create a regulatory sandbox, develop and implement voluntary codes of conduct for businesses, and publish a White Paper on AI regulation. The main task of these instruments is to ensure an adequate level of human rights protection in interaction with artificial intelligence.