Putting fundamental rights in context - selected use cases of ai in the EU

AuthorEuropean Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (EU body or agency)
Pages25-46

PUTTING FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS IN
CONTEXT  SELECTED USE CASES OF AI
IN THE EU
In the EU, the use of AI-related technologies is relatively wide-spread.
A recent survey shows that 42% of companies use AI-related technologies
– and that 18% plan to do so.
This chapter presents selected cases of AI use
typically referred to as ‘use cases’ in the AI
f‌ield. FRA collected information on such cases
from f‌ive EU Member States: Estonia, France,
Finland, the Netherlands and Spain. They involve
different areas of application across public
administration and private companies. Special
focus is put on the use of AI in the areas of social
benef‌its; predictive policing; health services;
and targeted advertising.
The chapter provides information on the current
use of AI, as well as basic information on EU
competence, in these select areas. The use cases
provide a good sense of what kind of AI and
related technologies are currently being used.
The examples also offer context for the
fundamental rights analysis. Looking at a
broad variety of use cases provides important
insights on how the actual use of AI can affect
people’s fundamental rights. Chapter 4 includes
a discussion of fundamental rights implications,
and makes reference to the cases described in
this chapter.
The use cases presented in this
chapter are based on information
obtained in interviews with
both public and private sector
representatives.
The interviewed representatives
from public administration work
in the areas of health services,
infrastructure and energy, the
judiciary, law enforcement,
migration and border management,
social benef‌its, tax, as well as
transportation and traff‌ic control.
Interviewees from private companies
mainly work in retail, marketing
and pricing, the health sector, in
f‌inancial services, energy, insurance,
employment and transport, as well
as in cross-cutting areas with a focus
on AI development for different
sectors.
Note on
interviewees

As noted, this report focuses on four broad AI ‘use cases’:
social benef‌its,
predictive policing,
health services, and
targeted advertising.
These areas are particularly sensitive as regards fundamental rights. Two
cover mainly the public administration’s use of AI (social benef‌its allocation
and predictive policing). The other two concern private companies (health
services and targeted advertising). These use cases provide the basis for
the report’s fundamental rights analysis by offering the necessary context.
Where appropriate, the report also highlights f‌indings from interviews that
cover areas other than these four areas.
Detailed studies on the taxonomy of AI are available,1 providing further
categorisations of the technology. As noted in the introduction, interviewees
had different views about what AI is and some also stated that there is no
clear def‌inition of AI.
This report discusses specif‌ic use cases without further classifying the
technology applied. Yet the use of AI in the cases examined differed: the
“AI and machine learning are
different concepts. AI is an umbrella
term.”
(Private company, Estonia)
“What you see now is that
everyone doing something with
machine learning is labelling this
as ‘AI’.”
(Public administration, Netherlands)
According to the European Enterprise Survey, at the beginning of 2020, 42% of companies
in the EU said they use technologies that depend on AI. This percentage ranges from 27%
in Estonia and Cyprus to 61% in Czechia (see Figure 1). Another 18% of companies are
planning to use AI in the future.
The survey indicates that AI is used mostly in the IT sector (63%). The technologies used
comprise a variety of IT applications aiming at process or equipment optimisation, anomaly
detection, process automation, and forecasting, price optimisation and decision making.
FIGURE : COMPANIES USING AI IN , BY MEMBER STATE %
Notes: The survey asked about the use or plans for use of ten different AI related technologies, such
as speech recognition, visual diagnostics, fraud detection, analysis of emotions, forecasting
based on machine learning and more. Includes the percentage of companies using at least one
AI technologies. N = ,.
Source: FRA, 2020 [based on data extracted from European Commission, European enterprise
survey on the use of technologies based on artif‌icial intelligence, Luxembourg, July
2020]
Use of AI by
companies in
the EU in 2020

  


 





 


 

  


  


       
                

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
EU-27
RO
AT
SE
SI
NL
BG
LU
EL
CZ
LT
BE
MT
LV
DK
HR
DE
HU
FR
PT
PL
IT
FI
ES
IE
EE
CY
SK
UK
Currently using AI Planning to use AI

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT