Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights
Working group of the Austrian Research Foundation
Description of the working group
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become omnipresent and significantly influences the state, society and individuals. It is essential for coping with the pandemic. It changes the healthcare sector and individual healthcare. It is indispensable for traffic control and for partially regulating economics, such as through labour market administration or job recruitment. It is used for combating crime and in many other areas of our lives, even for steering individual behaviour. The resulting opportunities are enormous as are the threats and risks: The use of AI interferes with legally protected rights protected by national and European constitutional law as well as international human rights, first and foremost, the right to privacy. It is still unclear whether the potential threat just concerns certain human rights or whether it, more fundamentally, concerns the common core of all human rights, namely a human person’s autonomy. This poses the question of whether and how AI is regulated or should be regulated, i.e. which governance approaches or opportunities are possible as well as the limits of regulation.
The AI and Human Rights working group wants to address these problems. It is an interdisciplinary research group focussing on law. Its research should contribute to more legal certainty in an adequate governance framework for this topic, a governance framework taking account of both the opportunities and the threats and risks of Artificial Intelligence.
Symposia
AI – Human Rights Fundamentals and Limitations
16 November 2023
The first symposium addresses fundamentals of human rights and the limitations of AI development and AI application. The topics covered range from socio-technological foundations, the EUs specific regulation approach, to the (missing) impact of single fundamental and human rights. In choosing the speakers, we paid special attention to including young scholars. With the invitation of Rostam J. Neuwirth we could furthermore win an international expert on AI regulation for the symposium.
Program
Members of the working group
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Iris Eisenberger
Chair of the Working Group, Professor of Innovation and Public Law, University of Vienna
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Reinhard Klaushofer
Deputy Chair of the Working Group, Professor of Public Law and Head of the Austrian Human Rights Institute, University of Salzburg
Professor of International Law, University of Graz
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Forgó
Professor of IT and IP Law, University of Vienna
Chair of the Young Section of the working group, PhD student in Interdisciplinary Legal Studies Environment and Bio-Resources Management, University of Vienna
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Holzinger
Professor of Digital Transformation in Smart Farm and Forest Operations, BOKU – University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Matthias Kettemann
Professor of Innovation, Theory and Philosophy of Law, University of Innsbruck
Post-Doc, Public Law, University of Salzburg
Univ.-Prof. (SFU) Dr. Konrad Lachmayer
Professor of Public Law, European Law and Fundamentals of Law, Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna
Uni:Docs Fellow at the Department of Legal Philosophy, Mathematics, University of Vienna
Professor of Robopsychology, Johannes Kepler University Linz
Senior Scientist, Technology Studies, University of Klagenfurt
Dr. Florian Sebastian Werni, BA
Post-Doc, Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law, University of Vienna
Young Section
Members of the Young Section
Co-Chair of the Young Section, Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law, University of Vienna
Co-Chair of the Young Section, Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law, University of Vienna
VICESSE
Department of Legal and Constitutional History, University of Vienna
Department of Public Law and Political Science, University of Graz
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Department of Technology Assessment, Vienna
Institute for Legal Gender Studies, Johannes Kepler University Linz
Department of Legal Philosophy, University of Vienna
Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law, University of Vienna
Universität Speyer, Fachbereich Öffentliches Recht, insbesondere Recht der Digitalisierung
Universität Salzburg, Fachbereich Öffentliches Recht
Uni:Docs Stipendiatin am Institut für Rechtsphilosophie, Mathematik, Universität Wien
Universität Wien, Institut für Innovation und Digitalisierung im Recht
Universität Wien, Institut für Staats- und Verwaltungsrecht
Universität Wien, Institut für Zivilrecht
Digital Age Research Center, Universität Klagenfurt
Universität Innsbruck, Institut für Theorie und Zukunft des Rechts
Universität Wien, Forschungsverbund Data Science