“We must not hit the brakes on AI. The development and use of artificial intelligence are crucial for our competitiveness and our digital sovereignty,” says Susanne Dehmel, member of the Bitkom Executive Board. “It is therefore all the more regrettable that the EDPB did not seek or facilitate a genuine dialog with the industry in the run-up to a decision with such potential consequences.”
The EDPB brings together the national data protection authorities and is intended to ensure uniform application of the GDPR in all countries. Its opinions, recommendations and guidelines are not binding, but they do provide guidance for the supervisory authorities of the EU member states. They are also used by the European Court of Justice and national courts. A corresponding statement by the EDPB would therefore at the very least lead to new legal uncertainty for companies that develop and train AI models themselves, but also for all companies that enrich and supplement existing models with their own data. Even today, 70 percent of all companies and even 80 percent of companies that use AI see data protection violations as the greatest risk when using AI. 52% of companies state that data protection hinders the use of AI.
In a current position paper on data protection in AI development and AI use, Bitkom therefore calls for the legitimate interest of companies in training AI with personal data to be recognized as a sufficient legal basis under the GDPR, unless the interests of the data subjects speak against this and outweigh it At the same time, there should be clear guidelines for weighing up interests with data protection so that companies have legal certainty. With regard to the EDPB, Bitkom advocates the introduction of binding, mandatory and transparent consultation procedures in order to involve the business community at national and European level at an early stage. This is the only way that technical and practical challenges can be adequately taken into account in addition to legal issues. “Data protection is a valuable asset and a fundamental part of our democratic value system. However, we must also make use of the possibilities provided for in European data protection law and not regularly seek the strictest possible interpretation,” says Dehmel. “We are already seeing that certain AI services are not being offered in Europe due to legal uncertainty. This also affects citizens who are disconnected from technological developments.”
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Further links
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