Associated Incidents
In an investigation by La Libre on Tuesday, we learn that a young Belgian killed himself following a discussion with an artificial intelligence. The eco-anxious 30-year-old shared his suicidal thoughts in discussions with Eliza – a chatbot created by an American start-up – for several weeks, without her trying to dissuade him from taking action.
After the testimony of his widow in La Libre, the Secretary of State for digitization, Mathieu Michel reacted. The latter spoke with the family of the deceased and announced that he wanted to act to avoid the excesses linked to the use of artificial intelligence.
”In the immediate future, it is essential to clearly identify the nature of the responsibilities that may have led to this kind of event”, he wrote in a press release. Of course, we still have to learn to live with algorithms, but the use of technology, whatever it is, can in no way allow content publishers to escape their own responsibility”.
The European Union has been working for two years on the AI Act, a text aimed at regulating the use of artificial intelligence. But the Secretary of State wants to seize the text to reinforce "the level of risk of certain AI applications", to better educate and protect users. To do this, Mathieu Michel announces that he has set up a working group “in order to analyze the text being prepared with the European Union and to propose essential adaptations.”