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  • Sat, 25.03. , 02:00 - 02:45 PM

  • The Brain between Law and Neurotechnology: Exemplified by Subliminal AI Systems.

  • Lecture

  • Rostam J. Neuwirth
    Rapid advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies such as neurotechnology, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), big data, or algorithms and "deep learning" etc., threaten to bring an end to the freedom of thought and of decision-making. This danger is particularly posed by subliminal AI systems that “deploy subliminal techniques beyond a person’s consciousness”. Already today it is possible to use brain spyware. i.e. software intentionally designed to detect private information (e.g. passwords or dates of birth). In addition, such subliminal techniques open up far-reaching possibilities for the manipulation of thoughts and human behavior, in order to influence consumer behavior to national elections as well as public opinion. For these reasons the European Commission launched in April 2021 a proposal for an EU Artificial Intelligence Act, which plans to prohibit such subliminal AI systems. The planned prohibition, however, does not only pose serious legal problems, but also calls the consideration of interdisciplinary questions, such as the threshold between sub- and supraliminal perception or the role of the senses. Moreover, new possibilities for a manipulation by AI systems can be expected to materialize in the near future, which is why a fundamental global debate is needed in order to preserve the right of freedom of thought in particular and to tackle the central global challenges, such as those set out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in general.

    Rostam J. Neuwirth (https://fll.um.edu.mo/rostam-j-neuwirth/) is Professor of Law and Head of the Department of Global Legal Studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Macau, in Macao (China). After studying law at the University of Graz and the Université d'Auvergne (France) he completed an LL.M. in comparative law at McGill Law School in Montreal (Canada) as well as a Ph.D. at the European University Institute (EHI) in Florence (Italy). He then worked in the Department for European Law in the International Law Bureau of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs and later taught at the Hidayatullah National Law University (HNLU) in Raipur and the West Bengal University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) in Kolkata (India). He is the author of several books (“The EU Artificial Intelligence Act: Regulating Subliminal AI Systems” and “Law in the Time of Oxymora: A Synaesthetic of Language, Logic and Law”) and numerous articles focusing on global legal issues and the complex connections between law, language, perception and technology.

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