Private Rule‐Making and European Governance of AI & Robotics

The efforts to standardize Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are in full swing. International, European and national Standard Developing Organizations (SDOs) have begun to develop standards for AI systems – with far-reaching impact on markets, societies and citizens. Standards could help to establish uniform technical, but also legal and ethical requirements for AI systems. On the other hand, standardization raises serious concerns surrounding excessive delegation of power in the hands of private SDOs, lack of democratic control, insufficient involvement of interest groups and limited possibilities of subjecting standards to judicial control. Against this backdrop, the envisaged research project will analyze the various (primarily legal) issues surrounding standardization and certification of AI systems, taking into account also insights from other disciplines.