What rights does the AI Act give to individuals?
Any natural or legal person who has reason to believe that the provisions of the AI Act have been infringed may lodge a complaint with the Market Surveillance Authority. The Market Surveillance Authority takes such complaints into account when carrying out its market surveillance activities.
In addition, any affected person who is subject to a decision taken by the deployer on the basis of the output of a high-risk AI system listed in Annex III, other than those listed in point 2 of Annex III (critical infrastructure AI systems), and which has legal effects or similarly significantly affects that person in a way that he considers to have adverse effects on his health, safety and fundamental rights, shall have the right to obtain from the deployer a clear and meaningful explanation of the role of the AI system in the decision-making process and the main elements of the decision taken.
The right to an explanation of the decision-making process is only provided for AI systems for which this right is not provided for in other EU legislation (e.g. personal data protection legislation). The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) contains a similar provision, but only for cases of processing of personal data, and the provision of the AI Act complements it and provides for a comparable right also for AI systems where no processing of personal data takes place.
Relevant Articles: 85, 86, Recitals 170 and 171
Do all organisations wishing to use AI systems have to ensure that their employees are AI literate?
Based on the Digital Omnibus on AI, the obligations of organisations are eased in that no required level of literacy is prescribed, while the Commission and the Member States must support them through their activities in fulfilling their obligation.
The Digital Omnibus on AI also amends the obligation regarding AI literacy. The new Article 4 of the AI Act provides that providers and deployers of AI systems shall take measures to support the development of AI literacy among their staff and other persons dealing with the operation and use of AI systems on their behalf, taking into account their technical knowledge, experience, education and training and the context in which the AI systems are to be used, as well as the persons or groups of persons on whom the AI systems are to be used.
It is expressly provided that this obligation does not require providers or deployers to guarantee any specific level of AI literacy of any individual.
Relevant Articles: 4
Additional Links: Digital Omnibus