Qualifying algorithmic secrecy

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The Role of European Equality Bodies in Balancing Intellectual Property with the Effective Application of Anti-Discrimination LawsThe growing reliance on AI has enabled the identification of a potentially dangerous paradox. While these technologies are capable of reinforcing inequality, the application of equality laws to these discriminatory acts is at risk of being hindered by the presence of algorithmic secrecy enabled by intellectual property. However, despite this acknowledgement, a solution which mitigates such tension without trading-off the interests of either AI developers or citizens is yet to be advanced.Consequently, this project aims to fill in this gap by investigating the extent to which introducing access rights as part of national equality bodies' powers could effectively mitigate the tension between intellectual property and European equality law. Focusing on pre-existing criticism relating to the tension between the proprietary nature of publicly used algorithms and anti-discrimination law, this project will identify transparency as the key factor that limits the effective application of European equality laws. Acknowledging, on the one hand, the growing support for addressing this tension via expertise-based access rights and, on the other, the importance of national equality bodies in preventing and challenging discrimination, this project will seek to assess the merits of integrating such access rights as part of the legal mandate of European equality bodies. This hypothesis, in turn, will be analysed with reference to the necessity of these bodies for such a right, their suitability for this role, and theability of this approach to reflect themes used to justify the strong level of intellectual property protection of algorithms and data.