Regulation of artificial intelligence is partly necessary, but the sector must not be overregulated, as technological development requires freedom, said Czech president Petr Pavel said at the Globsec conference in Prague.

Pavel said the international security environment is currently governed by a competition between democracy on one hand, and different kinds of autocracy on the other. Somewhere in the middle, he argued, is a large group of countries and nations that are undecided which way to go. They have pragmatic cooperation with some of the autocratic regimes, probably out of frustration with the inability or unwillingness of the democratic states to cooperate more deeply, and at the same time are influenced by propaganda that portrays democracy as a system that will fail, he added.

The president added that technology is and always has been a tool of power, and whoever achieves a major technological breakthrough will have a great advantage in promoting their value system.

All democratic countries, he said, must ensure that technology is used to promote democratic values and is not misused by those who want to exercise greater control over their citizens and use it to dominate them militarily, for example.

Pavel mentioned that he partially supported regulation, but not excessive regulation that would limit technological development. If regulation is excessive, it would open up space for competitors who would not impose similar levels of restriction, he warned.

Lukas Kintr, director of the National Office for Cyber and Information Security (NUKIB), also spoke at Globsec in a panel on cybersecurity and new technologies, including artificial intelligence. According to him, there are a wide variety of approaches within the EU towards new technologies and their regulation, and finding a compromise between all member states is not easy. The EU is currently a bit over-regulated, he said.

Source: CTK

Prepared by the team of foreign offices CzechTrade Osaka and Tokyo