Barroso defends regulation of artificial intelligence in Davos

Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, president of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), defended again this Wednesday (17) that artificial intelligence activities be regulated to avoid an “extremely negative impact on people’s freedom and democracy”.

The statement was given to journalists after the judge participated in one of the debates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in which he spoke about the democratic environment in Latin America and the advance of organized crime. He attributed the lack of effective public security policies to negligence on the part of progressive governments.

For Barroso, artificial intelligence brings “many risks”, such as the “impact on democracies”. The minister states that there is an “imperative need for regulation” of the tool.

“The potential of disinformation and deep fake. Because democracy is made up of people’s informed participation. […] A mechanism that can disseminate disinformation can have an extremely negative impact on people’s freedom and democracy”, he said.

Luís Roberto Barroso also stated that Brazil “set an example for the world of overcoming difficulties” during the acts of January 8, 2023, “from an institutional point of view, authoritarian populism, preserving democratic institutions”.

“Divergence and polarization will always exist around the world. But what I think we are, little by little, rescuing is civility, the ability for people who think differently to be able to sit at the same table without attacking each other, without insulting each other, thinking about the best solutions”, he added.

Barroso’s speech is a repetition of others he has given in speeches that defend the regulation not only of artificial intelligence, but mainly of social networks. This is a request from both him and members of the government, who see the internet as a channel to disseminate what they consider to be “misinformation”.

More recently, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, who presides over the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), stated that the rules that will be adopted in this year’s municipal elections have already been fully defined and that there will be strict control over content posted on social media. A decision by the STF went further and allowed it to continue acting unilaterally in decisions to remove content it considers illegal relating to the electoral campaign.

Among the decisions and theses are also the standards for “combating misinformation, fraudulent information and the misuse of artificial intelligence”, he said in reference to the recent agreement signed with the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) that will allow communication more agile with the TSE to take down content that it considers irregular.