Staff Writer Sofia Montagna attended a forum featuring the President of Slovenia’s views on AI and data privacy.

“AI will only be as ethical as the people who are developing it,” Dr. Natasa Pirc Musar, the President of Slovenia, told students at the World Leader Forum held at Columbia University’s Italian Academy on Thursday.

The World Leaders Forum, a year-round series held by Columbia University, has hosted over 300 heads of state and world leaders from over 85 countries since it was first established in 2003; past speakers include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland. This talk—“Human Rights and Information Technology: A Comparative View of Europe and the United States”—featured Dr. Natasa Pirc Musar, and was moderated by Jan Svejnar. Jan Svejnar—the moderator for the discussion—is a Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Columbia University. Dr. Musar, the first female head of state in the Republic of Slovenia, was elected in December 2022. Prior to the presidential election, she worked as a journalist, human rights lawyer, Information Commissioner, director of the Center for Education and Information for the Supreme Court of Slovenia, and Vice President of the Joint Supervisory Body for Europol.

Cosponsored by the Harriman Institute and the Center on Global Economy and Governance, this event discussed the importance of regulating AI to protect people’s privacy, legislative differences in data protection between the European Union and the United States, disinformation online, and the path forward for AI.

Dr. Musar asserted that privacy is a human right—an ideology, she noted, that distinguishes the European Union from the US government. She asserted that, because the US paradigm is that privacy online is a consumer right rather than a human right, Americans’ privacy is less well protected than that of European citizens. “The law and technology have to work together,” Dr. Musar told us.

She went on to discuss the path forward to developing AI systems with positive social impact, noting the importance of tech companies including racial diversity, gender diversity, and people of different professional backgrounds in AI development teams. Additionally, she commented that AI “can’t solve every problem”: there are limits on AI systems’ accuracy of the information, and programs such as ChatGPT’s information should be cross-checked with other sources before being put into use by consumers.

In response to Jan Svejnar’s question of whether she is optimistic or pessimistic about the development of AI regulation, Dr. Musar commented, “I want to say I’m optimistic, but I’m wary of it as well”—Musar warned students of the threat to privacy posed by computer cookies, as well as the widespread nature of data collection. “Almost all modern technology collects data,” Musar warned.

After her talk, Dr. Musar gave students the opportunity to ask questions, thus stimulating discussion of personal data collection, hate speech on social media, and the propagation of disinformation online.

“We must not waste our time in being late in regulating AI,” Musar commented.

Image via Bwog Archives