Towards Trustworthy AI: Malta’s Ethical AI Framework Open for Public Consultation

In a bid to establish Malta as the “Ultimate AI Launchpad,” the Malta.AI Taskforce has released a public consultation document on its intended ethical framework for Artificial Intelligence technology.

The title of the document is self-explanatory: “Towards Trustworthy AI”. This reflects the Maltese government’s intentions of establishing a stable ground for the future development of disruptive technologies.Building on its National AI Strategy [1] the government intends to base the future of Malta’s AI development on four objectives:

• A human-centric approach
• Respect for applicable laws, regulations, human rights and democratic values
• Maximising the benefits of AI systems while reducing risks
• Aligning with international standards and norms.

Following on from various international and institutional publications on the subject, such as that of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence [2] , Malta.AI seeks to ensure that AI technologies are developed with the following guiding lights:

• The promotion of human autonomy in order to supplement, complement and empower humans rather than to replace them;
• The prevention of harm to avoid and protect against malicious use and negative impact to vulnerable groups;
• Fairness to ensure a robust system of development, protecting against discriminatory or biased outcomes as well as to ensure accountability; and
• Explicability to allow the general public to understand and challenge the various uses of the technology.

Finally, the government wishes to capitalise on last year’s ground work, that is the establishment of the Malta Digital Innovation Authority and the promulgation of the Innovative Technology Arrangements and Services Act (Chapter 592 of the Laws of Malta), which provide a sound certification framework, and which will aid in the government’s quest to ensure trustworthy AI.

The public consultation document can be found here. Interested parties are invited to submit their responses via email to fsdei.opm@gov.mt by 6^th September 2019.

[1] https://www.mamotcv.com/resources/news/malta-the-ultimate-ai-launchpad
[2] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/draft-ethics-guidelines-trustworthy-ai