EU's Right to Explanation: A Harmful Restriction on Artificial Intelligence

The EU General Data Protection Regulation includes a right to obtain an explanation of decisions made by algorithms and a right to opt-out of some algorithmic decisions altogether. These regulations do little to help consumers, but they will slow down the development and use of AI in Europe by holding developers to a standard that is often unnecessary and infeasible, writes Nick Wallace in TechZone360. If EU policymakers refuse to revisit the issue, member states should use national legislation to establish reasonable alternatives for when AI cannot produce a legible explanation and provide legal authorization for the most important uses of AI, such as self-driving cars.