Dr. Dan McQuillan:

At the moment, the leaked propositions are actually to walk back both the AI Act and some of the GDPR. This is not stated in the leaked proposals, but, presumably, it is happening under pressure from big tech and most directly from the Trump Administration. We know how closely they work in co-ordination with each other.

If I may try to bridge between that issue and some of the conversations around social media and the question of AI and the state, which, I understood from the Chair, was also the core issue of the committee's work, it is very interesting to hear about social media, disinformation and the influence of the platforms, because these are exactly the same issues that are before the committee in terms of AI. You have the corporate presence and power, which, to some extent is already beyond regulation and demonstrates that repeatedly but, more fundamentally - and this is in relation to the technology itself - they have a form of technology, the AI algorithmic systems, which is essentially going to introduce deep fakes and ranking systems of a certain character and type into the very functioning of the state. Therefore, it seems that when it comes to the issues that are now being reflected, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. People have eaten it in terms of social media, and the question is whether they are going to eat it in terms of the rest of the systems they are in. This is going to introduce the stuff into the very systems themselves. Not only that, it is going to be done by shovelling a lot of public money at it at a time when the companies are talking about the fact that the whole AI industry is greatly overvalued. This is going to be done at considerable cost in the context of climate impacts.