The French Constitutional Council (CC) approved the Olympic Games bill, adopted in April, which includes, among other things, the use of artificial intelligence in video surveillance systems to ensure safety on the streets of Paris. According to TASS, this was announced by the Minister of the Interior of France Gerald Darmanin.
“I welcome the decision of the Constitutional Council, which has just approved the bill for the 2024 Olympic Games, including algorithmic processing of video surveillance images, on a trial basis with established safeguards. Ensuring the safety of this unprecedented event is our priority,” the minister wrote on his social media page.
Such algorithms are designed not so much to focus on specific citizens, but to identify non-standard and dangerous situations, including fights and cases of vandalism, the newspaper Le Monde clarifies. According to the submitted text, the use of these means cannot lead to “any separate decision or prosecution”.
However, left-wing MPs, who demanded that the bill be reviewed for constitutionality, expressed doubt that the security measures envisaged by it “respect the principle of protecting human dignity, the principle of the necessity and individualization of punishments, as well as the right to respect for private life.” Politicians were particularly concerned about the fact that the measures specified in the bill will be valid not only during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, but also for a year after the end of the games, that is, until March 31, 2025.
The Constitutional Council did not uphold the opposition’s claims, however adding “interpretative reservations” to its statement of conformity. As such, he stressed that a prefect who authorized algorithmic video surveillance must “stop it immediately” if “the conditions that justified” this authorization “are no longer met.” Also in the conclusion of the COP there are interpretative reservations about the use of DNA analysis in doping control: the Council insists on the mandatory informing of athletes before taking a sample of the intention to conduct such an analysis. “The competent administrative authorities, under the control of the referee, will have to ensure that the conditions for providing this information to an athlete are such as to ensure that, when deciding to compete, he or she also consents to the genetic analysis of the samples taken,” – says the conclusion.
Source: Rosbalt
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
