Panel 3.05: Roundtable – Balancing Secrecy and Transparency in Public-Sector AI
This roundtable explored the institutional, legal and societal drivers of secrecy of AI systems, their interplay with transparency and their implications for public governance. The debate considered the relevant frameworks (across the EU digital rulebook) that build both secrecy and transparency, and discussed approaches to (re-)shaping transparency in the public interest. In doing so, it touched on the different sectors and areas of interest and teased out the broader implications and lessons for a more sensible equilibrium between public and private interests in governing public-sector AI in the EU.
The session was chaired by Professor Deirdre Curtin (EUI), in conversation with Dr. Kristina Irion (IViR), Dr. Plixavra Vogiatzoglou (IViR), Dr. Tommaso Fia (UCL), and PhD Researcher Anamika Kundu (EUI).
Panel 4.20: Artificial Secrecy: Why, how and for whom the EU digital rulebook negotiates and produces transparency of digital technologies?
This panel explored pertinent questions at the transparency versus confidentiality nexus, including: how do regulatory authorities, in particular the European Commission, apply freedom of information laws when confidentiality and trade secret claims are raised; how a digital trade law provision protecting source code of software is used to weaken the AI Act’s rules on market conformity assessments and supervision of AI systems; how human rights authorities and bodies can harness their powers to access commercial information necessary for algorithmic transparency. Underlying these is the fundamental question of how EU law negotiates transparency and confidentiality in relation to regulated digital technologies, and whether this can effectively mitigate the power asymmetries between citizens, public-interest bodies, and private actors with strong commercial interests.
The session was chaired by Joanna Mazur (University of Warsaw), in conversation with Dr. Kristina Irion (IViR), Dr. Plixavra Vogiatzoglou (IViR), and PhD Candidate Vilma Margarit (IViR).
