Research
The right to information enhancement, AI and avoiding lock-in to monopolistic online services
Răzvan Florian - President @ RIST
Live from Room 32
10th November, 15:45-16:15
There is increasing concern in the EU over the dominance of big tech monopolies over the information-processing tools on which we are becoming more and more dependent. The Digital Services Act is currently being debated and proposes, among others, an ex ante regulation of systemic operators, centered on the actions of regulatory authorities and on mandating online operators to implement certain APIs. An alternative, better approach is based on deregulation targeted towards implementing in legislation a new user right, the right of informational enhancement. Briefly, we should have the right to use the software of our choice for accessing and processing digital content for which we already have the right to access it and process it with our eyeballs, brain, fingers, etc. I will discuss what this right means and how artificial intelligence allows, based on this right, could enable users to be more efficient in processing the vast quantity of information available online, resulting in increased user satisfaction and empowerment, and increased economical efficiencies.
Răzvan Florian
RIST
Răzvan Florian is the president of the Romanian Institute of Science and Technology and also a principal investigator working at the intersection of machine learning and program synthesis. He has previously developed a new learning rule for spiking neural networks, components of which were implemented in hardware in the Loihi neuromorphic chip developed by Intel. Dr. Florian has also founded several startups (Arxia, Epistemio, WebCube, and Zindro) and has previously contributed to the reform of the Romanian research and higher education system.