AI: Zammit Lewis calls for legal certainty and human rights safeguards

As the European Union edges ever closer to new legislation regulating the area of artificial intelligence, Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis told his EU counterparts this week that the bloc needs to come up with a framework that provides legal certainty and that safeguards human rights.

Speaking at an Informal Council of Ministers of Justice in Slovenia, which currently holds the EU Presidency, Zammit Lewis remarked how, “It is important to start work on regulating artificial intelligence, but it is also important to have uniform rules for member states because it is only in this way that we can ensure respect for human rights.”

Zammit Lewis also spoke about justice and juveniles where he briefed other EU justice ministers on the Courts of Malta’s Children’s House, which helps and protects minors by allowing them to give court testimony off premises and, as such, without needing to confront their aggressors face-to-face.

Zammit Lewis stressed how it was the duty of each and every government to protect all those who are vulnerable, “that is why we have an obligation to create measures to protect children”.

On the meeting’s sidelines, Zammit Lewis participated in a virtual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, during which he went over “Malta’s unprecedented developments with reforms to the Constitution and institutional principles which have strengthened the country’s rule of law and justice system”.