The Budapest University of Technology and Economics hosted the EELISA Workshop on AI Ethics and Law on 18-19 March 2024. In four panel discussions, they investigated the possible research directions in the topic, as well as the implications of regulation, especially on Copyright matters and the EU AI Act. The event also featured a backcasting exercise and a documentary screening.

The first session opened up the space of ideas with several philosophical topics. Ralf Mitschke (Friedrich-Alexander University), Merve Calimli Akgun (Istanbul Technical University), Emine Görgül (Istanbul Technical University), Marcell Sebestyén (Budapest University of Technology and Economics), Lidia Marassi (Federico II University of Napoli), Alessio Tartaro (University of Sassari; CEN/CENELEC) and Mihály Héder (Budapest University of Technology and Economics) discussed a wide range of topics from dark enlightenment through AI education to the political and international relations aspects of AI.

The second session was dedicated to the AI Act, finalized on 13 March 2024. This was the most subscribed panel and the room was full. With the moderation of legal expert Gabriele Franco (Panetta Law Firm, Rome), Jesus Salgado-Criado (Technical University of Madrid), Celia Fernandez Aller (Technical University of Madrid), Kitti Mezei (Budapest University of Technology and Economics) and Alessio Tartaro went through the main points of the AI Act and the implications of it to the European landscape.

Session 3 was a documentary screening, introduced by Ralf Mitschke. The movie was titled Musings of a Mechatronic Mistress: The Peculiar Purpose of Tiffany the Sex Robot (by Jasmin Hagendorfer).

By the end of day 1, the backcasting exercise took off with audience input:

Panel 3 discussed the issues of AI creativity and copyright. Moderated by Anikó Grad-Gyenge (Budapest University of Technology and Economics), Gabriele Franco, Celia Fernandez Aller, Daniele Cavalli (Ecole normale supérieure Paris), Aïda Elamrani (Ecole normale supérieure Paris) and Zsolt Ziegler (Budapest University of Technology and Economics), the panel explored almost unfathomable implications of generative AI and the way it uses data.

Finally, panel 4 embraced the future. From the current standardisation efforts to the expected behavior of companies and society in general, Gabriele Franco, Celia Fernandez Aller, Jesus Salgado-Criado, Alessio Tartaro, Stefano Marrone (Federico II University of Napoli) and Mihály Héder shared their visions on what the next years or decades might hold.

With 113 visitors, most of them local students but also some experts from the field, and several fruitful discussions in the breaks as well as in the upcoming classes, the organizers believe that EELISA Workshop on AI Ethics and Law was a fun and useful event.

This was an activity funded under EELISA InnoCORE project. EELISA InnoCORE has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101035811.