Fairness in Agreement With European Values: An Interdisciplinary Perspective on AI Regulation

TL;DR

This interdisciplinary paper examines fairness and discrimination concerns in AI regulation, especially the EU AI Act, through diverse perspectives and ethical axes to guide effective policy development.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive analysis of fairness in AI regulation by integrating legal, industry, sociotechnical, and philosophical viewpoints, proposing roles for AI regulation to address key tensions.

Findings

Identifies tensions between standardization and localization in AI fairness

Highlights ethical conflicts between utilitarian and egalitarian approaches

Suggests roles for AI regulation to reconcile fairness concerns

Abstract

With increasing digitalization, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming ubiquitous. AI-based systems to identify, optimize, automate, and scale solutions to complex economic and societal problems are being proposed and implemented. This has motivated regulation efforts, including the Proposal of an EU AI Act. This interdisciplinary position paper considers various concerns surrounding fairness and discrimination in AI, and discusses how AI regulations address them, focusing on (but not limited to) the Proposal. We first look at AI and fairness through the lenses of law, (AI) industry, sociotechnology, and (moral) philosophy, and present various perspectives. Then, we map these perspectives along three axes of interests: (i) Standardization vs. Localization, (ii) Utilitarianism vs. Egalitarianism, and (iii) Consequential vs. Deontological ethics which leads us to identify a pattern of common arguments and tensions between these axes. Positioning the discussion within the axes of interest and with a focus on reconciling the key tensions, we identify and propose the roles AI Regulation should take to make the endeavor of the AI Act a success in terms of AI fairness concerns.