AlgorithmWatch’s guideline to use generative AI responsibly

Whether you use ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, Copilot or Perplexity – generative AI poses massive problems: many results are inaccurate and politically problematic, and the systems’ energy and water consumption is enormous. At the same time, they have become an integral part of everyday life. AlgorithmWatch has developed guidelines to help use generative AI responsibly.

Media release

Discrimination through AI hiring tools: Research project presents new solutions

A major European research project is releasing new tools, approaches, and concrete recommendations aimed at tackling discrimination in job recruiting caused by AI hiring tools.

Report algorithmic discrimination!

When we apply for credit, apartments, or jobs online, companies increasingly use automated systems to process our data and make decisions that impact our daily lives. The problem: Such systems are not neutral and can reproduce inequalities and assumptions about people that already exist in society. What can we do to ensure that the use of non-transparent automated systems does not lead to people being disadvantaged? We need to make algorithmic discrimination visible, and you can help us with it!

Interview with Moira Daviet

“Algorithmic systems do not make more ‘objective’ recruitment decisions than humans”

The use of AI tools in hiring can have discriminatory effects. The FINDHR Horizon Europe project looks at how this type of discrimination can be tackled.

AI Action Summit in Paris – a missed opportunity?

Our Executive Directors, Angela Müller and Matthias Spielkamp, were in Paris last week representing us at the international AI Action Summit in Paris hosted by the French Government. So, what to make of the summit, the billion-dollar promises made at it, and the Big Tech party beats that never stop pounding? These are their main observations.

Press release

AI Action Summit: AlgorithmWatch demands sustainable AI

While tech companies portray AI as the solution to the climate crisis and call for more and bigger AI, AI’s energy consumption has reached unprecedented heights. Since the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit takes place next week, AlgorithmWatch calls for urgent steps to align AI with planetary boundaries.

Zuckerberg Makes Meta Worse to Please Trump

With his decision to gut moderation and fact-checking on Meta’s platforms, Instagram, Facebook and Threads, Mark Zuckerberg shows he cares more about the approval of Donald Trump than how his platforms can harm society.

Election year 2024

10 Questions about AI and elections

2024 is an important election year. While citizens all over the world get ready to cast their ballot, many people worry about AI: Are chatbots and fake images a threat to democracy? Can we still trust what we see online? We explain why the hype around AI and elections is somewhat overblown and which real risks we need to watch out for instead.

Press release

The Council of Europe’s Convention on AI: No free ride for tech companies and security authorities!

The Convention on AI is intended to be the first legally binding international agreement on AI. The final round of negotiations will take place in Strasbourg starting 11 March 2024. The members of the Council of Europe (including Switzerland and the EU member states) and non-members such as the US, Japan and Canada will also be sitting around the negotiating table. AlgorithmWatch, over 90 civil society organizations, and prominent academics are calling on the negotiating states to regulate companies’ and national security authorities’ use of AI.

Press release

Europe’s Approach to AI regulation: Embracing Big Tech and Security Hardliners

Europe is about to adopt two major regulations on Artificial Intelligence: the EU’s AI Act and the Council of Europe’s Convention on AI. The Federal Council has already announced that it will base its own proposals for AI regulation on them. Yet, while both rulebooks were initially meant to turn the tables on Big Tech and to effectively protect people against governments' abuse of AI technology, interests of tech companies and governments' security hardliners may win out.

Social Media

AlgorithmWatch CH ceases activities on X, formally known as Twitter

Starting today, AlgorithmWatch ceases publication on X/Twitter. The decision follows the continuous and rapid disintegration of the social network since its new owner took over a year ago.

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.

The 5 Best Podcasts on Algorithms and Work

Interested in how algorithmic systems affect us at work? Here are some well-researched podcast episodes to get drawn into.

Help us fight injustice in hiring!

Donate your CV to fight together against automated discrimination in job application procedures!

AlgorithmWatch CH becomes funding partner of Mercator Foundation Switzerland

Within the framework of a three-year strategic grant, Mercator Foundation Switzerland supports the core activities of AlgorithmWatch CH as an advocacy organization and allows for a sustainable organizational development.

AlgorithmWatch CH in Council of Europe Expert Group on AI in public administration

The Committee on Legal Cooperation (CDCJ) of the Council of Europe has established a working group on the topic of administrative law and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Angela Mueller, Head of AlgorithmWatch CH and Head of our Policy & Advocacy team, contributes as an expert to the group.

A heartfelt thank you! Anna Mätzener is leaving us

Anna Mätzener is leaving AlgorithmWatch Switzerland in the fall.

Facebook’s gutting of CrowdTangle: a step backward for platform transparency

Facebook is quietly dismantling CrowdTangle, a tool that academics, watchdog organizations and journalists rely on to expose disinformation and other problematic content on the platform. The move contradicts the company’s commitments to give researchers better access to data.

Solidarity with Ukraine

As an organization that defends human rights and democracy, we, the team of AlgorithmWatch and AlgorithmWatch Switzerland, stand in solidarity with Ukraine, the Ukrainian population and all Russians who do not support this war.

ADM in the Public Sector: The Workshop

AlgorithmWatch Switzerland was invited to give a workshop as part of an event series on AI & Ethics organised and presented by Swiss Digital Initiative (SDI). Together with participants from various backgrounds, we explored how Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be applied to the public sector, where and in what forms such applications are already used and what questions should be asked when considering the use of AI in the public sector.

AlgorithmWatch forced to shut down Instagram monitoring project after threats from Facebook

Digital platforms play an ever-increasing role in structuring and influencing public debate. Civil society watchdogs, researchers and journalists need to be able to hold them to account. But Facebook is increasingly fighting those who try. It shut down New York University’s Ad Observatory in August, and went after AlgorithmWatch, too.

Let’s celebrate: One year AlgorithmWatch Switzerland!

Reclaim Your Face – A Civil Society Initiative to ban biometric mass surveillance

A large coalition of civil society organizations, among them AlgorithmWatch and AlgorithmWatch Switzerland, have come together in a European movement that demands a ban on biometric recognition systems that enable mass surveillance. Earlier this year, it launched a European Citizens Initiative, calling on the EU to ban biometric mass surveillance - such as automated face recognition in public spaces.

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