Training: Opening AI’s Black Box. How to find cases of algorithmic discrimination

December 1, 9:00 to 16:30 CET, Brussels, Belgium

This training took place in hybrid format on 1 December from 9:00 to 16:30 CET. It targeted Equality Bodies, with focus on members of Equinet's Cluster on Artificial Intelligence, in order to improve their knowledge on how to identify cases of algorithmic discrimination.

Back-to-back with the above training, Equinet's Cluster on Artificial Intelligence took place (hybrid format) on 2 December from 9:00 CET to 13:00 CET.

Background

The notorious “black box “ of automated decision-making, including through Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled systems, poses a serious and widely discussed challenge to the effectiveness of non-discrimination law. If underreporting has been known to undermine the strength of legal protection against discrimination, then AI-systems threaten to exponentially increase its scale and negative impact.  With victims of discriminatory algorithms often being left unaware that they are discriminated against,  the responsibility of identifying and tackling AI-enabled discrimination could increasingly fall upon Equality Bodies, whether working alone or alongside with relevant national sectoral regulators.   

​The present training addressed this challenge by highlighting and exploring various ways in which equality bodies could look for and ultimately successfully identify cases of algorithmic discrimination.

Training sessions*

*Check the below document "Additional Resources" for all materials shared by participants and speakers during the training and AI Cluster meeting. Further powerpoint presentations will be added under the respective sessions below.

Session 1: Session 2: Uncovering automated bias: Equality Bodies in action

  • Christina Jönsson, Equality Ombudsman of Sweden
    • Investigation on how government agencies are using AI and automated decision-making and the extent to which they are taking into account risks of discrimination and barriers to equal rights in their application of AI and automated decision-making.2022 Report, English summary on p. 8 – 10.

  Session 2: Critical alliances: media and civil society partners

Session 3: Critical alliances: Equality Bodies working with national public regulatory bodies and within government-coordinated platforms

Introductory presentation:  Learning from Council of Europe’s national-level trainings on algorithmic discrimination bringing different national stakeholders together

  • Menno Etema, Council of Europe - Directorate General of Democracy, Anti-Discrimination Department – No Hate Speech and Cooperation unit

 Equality bodies’ partnering with national public stakeholders

If you have any questions regarding this training and/or experience difficulties with accessing the AI website or any of its content, please contact Milla Vidina, Policy Officer, Equinet Secretariat (milla.vidina@equineteurope.org).