Technologies are not neutral, neither are choices in the public procurement of AI. The AI systems we deploy today are the systems we will live with tomorrow. Artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping the opportunities of European citizens and transforming their relationships with governments and public authorities. Today we have the opportunity to responsibly define the way AI will be implemented in the future.

This white paper provides a detailed map for public procurers to choose AI-based servicesand solutions that put data ethics, democracy and fundamental rights first. It is an initialstep towards creating a standardized framework for the questions and considerations publicprocurement processes should include to adopt trustworthy AI and reward the Europeandevelopment of it.

Public procurement as leverage for trustworthy AI

This white paper includes ‘data ethics’ as a horizontal theme that cuts across the components of trustworthy AI. Data ethics is the responsible and sustainable use of data. It is about doing the right thing for people and society. Data processes should be designed as sustainable solutions benefitting the interests of individual human beings first and foremost. Data ethics is about efforts to create transparency and foreseeability in regard to the social and ethical implications of data processing, and it is about real accountability in governance and management structures. Its goal is actively developing privacy-by-design and privacyenhancing products and infrastructures and stressing the need always to handle someone else’s personal information in the same way as you wish your own data, or your children’s data, were handled.

The white paper is produced by the independent thinkdotank DataEthics.eu