Thread by @C___CS

I got a chance to take an early peek at this article on the EU #AI Act.

Some thoughts on AI, standards and civil society that go beyond @mikarv amazing thread below:

https://twitter.com/mikarv/status/1412367513321676800?s=20

I want to pick up on the role that CEN/CENELEC standardization will play in the implementation of the #AIA regulations & make sure standards are squarely on the radar of civil society.

Civil society in the EU are already doing important work, driving debates about (digital) rights, racism, justice & AI, like @edri @algorithmwatch @accessnow @AmnestyTech @Foxglovelegal & funders get it @euaifund @osf @df_fund

But standards are often overlooked.

Why? Well, I wrote a whole Ph.D. about it but TL;DR working on standards is:

- spennie
- takes (arcane) tech skills
- invisible, non-sexy work
- (painfully) slow
- hard to get funded
- unpleasant

hackcur.io/whats-wrong-wi…

Yet, this process whereby regulation is "outsourced" to privatized standards bodies is increasingly common and comes with some serious accountability concerns.

If you don't believe me, please read the work of @LauraDeNardis and @julie17usc they trace this in great detail.

The main concern here is that:

Even if civil society manages to lobby into existence a "perfect" AIA, their work could still be undone if the harmonized CEN/CENELEC standard is not up to scratch.

https://twitter.com/mikarv/status/1412368555182546944?s=20

Given the existing lack of bottom-up accountability & redress in the AIA, standards need to be front-and-center to civil society interventions.

This is important:

https://twitter.com/PhilipDawson/status/1415748096613625857