Regulating Pornographic Deepfakes—the Origin of the “Problem”
According to statistics, pornographic use makes up 96% of deepfake footage, most of which is made without consent. In fact, deepfakes made their way into public consciousness via pornographic use. In December 2017, a trend started on Reddit, where users
Bridging the digital divide
In an era defined by the rapid evolution of the digital society, the European Union stands at the forefront of efforts to bridge the (geographical, socioeconomic, generational, educational, ethnic) divide caused by digitalization between certain groups of its societies. As
Copyright vs. Generative Artificial Intelligence: Questions and Answers? More like Just Questions.
The relationship between copyright and Generative AI (GAI) has been a hot topic since the technology's rise to prominence. There are many aspects to the question, from whether big tech companies have used copyrighted content to train their models without
The Path to Digital Sovereignty: The European Chips Act and Beyond
On 21 September the European Chips Act came into force. The legislation introduces a comprehensive package of measures to ensure the EU's security of supply, flexibility and technological leadership in the field of semiconductor technologies and applications. With the newly enforced
The Proposal of the European Parliament for the Amendment of the Treaties: a Document Influenced by Lobbyists?
In previous posts published on Constitutional Discourse, we have analyzed the proposal of the European Parliament for the amendment of the founding Treaties (Treaties) of the EU, adopted by its plenary in November 2023. The European Parliament has recommended a
The proposal of the European Parliament for the amendment of the Treaties: a slim majority for major institutional changes?
A previous writing on Constitutional Discourse has analyzed the proposal of the constitutional affairs committee of the European Parliament for initializing the ordinary revision procedure of Article 48 TEU for the amendment of the Treaties. Last week, the report has
Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: a New Era of CSR
In an era riddled with uncertainty, economic, environmental, and social crises, the recent focus has shifted towards the promotion of sustainable practices in the global economy. To make this pivot effective, influential economic players first had to be identified and
Emotion Recognition—a Sheep or a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? (PART II.)
In our previous post, we briefly discussed the possibilities of analyzing emotions in written texts. Compared to Emotion Recognition (ER), this is a much simpler case, but we have already seen how complex it can be. ER attempts to enable the
Emotion Recognition—a Sheep or a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing? (PART I.)
Machine-assisted emotion recognition has recently been in the spotlight again, with the new draft of the EU's forthcoming AI Act. Based on the current state of the draft, a complete ban on Emotion Recognition (ER)-based systems is expected, for example
Afterlife Deepfakes—Postmortem Right to Publicity and the Right to Respect for the Deceased
There are already a few examples of deepfakes being used in films to replace an actor’s or actress’ voice or even face after their death. For example, in 2019 a new movie, Finding Jack was announced, starring James Dean, an