Austria’s social security invests over €50m in AI – just  for bookkeeping?

The company that manages the technical infrastructure of Austria’s health insurance system passed a massive tender for AI services. The plan is shrouded in secrecy, even though the company’s track record urges caution.

Fighting in the dark: How Europeans push back against rogue AI

Automated systems go astray, they contribute to child sexual violence, deny people their social benefits, or block organizations' online presence. The affected people often feel helpless when their rights are violated, but some are taking up the fight while current laws fail to protect the victims.

DSA Day and platform risks

Got Complaints? Want Data? Digital Service Coordinators will have your back – or will they?

The Digital Services Act (DSA) is the EU’s new regulation against risks from online platforms and search engines. It has been in effect since 2023, but 17 February 2024 marks “DSA Day,” on which many of the regulation’s most impactful provisions come into force.

How not to: We failed at analyzing public discourse on AI with ChatGPT

We wanted to collect data on how newspapers wrote about AI. Swayed by the sirens of OpenAI, we thought that using a Large Language Model was the best way to do such a massive text analysis. Alas, we failed. But LLMs are probably not to blame.

Third cohort of AlgorithmWatch fellows will investigate discrimination in the financial sector

As part of AlgorithmWatch's algorithmic accountability reporting fellowship, seven journalists and researchers will work together to unveil discriminating outcomes and practices arising from the use of automated decision making systems in Europe's financial sector.

New study: Research on Microsoft Bing Chat

AI Chatbot produces misinformation about elections

Bing Chat, the AI-driven chatbot on Microsoft’s search engine Bing, makes up false scandals about real politicians and invents polling numbers. Microsoft seems unable or unwilling to fix the problem. These findings are based on a joint investigation by AlgorithmWatch and AI Forensics, the final report of which has been published today. We tested if the chatbot would provide factual answers when prompted about the Bavarian, Hessian, and Swiss elections that took place in October 2023.

Press release

AI Act deal: Key safeguards and dangerous loopholes

After a negotiation marathon in the global spotlight, EU lawmakers closed a deal late Friday night on the AI Act, the EU’s law on regulating the development and use of Artificial Intelligence systems. The EU Parliament managed to introduce a number of key safeguards to improve the original draft text, but Member States still decided to leave people without protection in situations where they would need it most.