Konul Nurullayeva attends videoconference of PACE Committee

A video conference of the PACE Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination was held today. Reports on several topical issues such as "Upholding human rights in times of crisis and pandemics: gender equality and non-discrimination," "Preventing discrimination caused by the use of artificial intelligence," "Discrimination against Roma and Travellers in the field of housing" crimes" were listened to at the online meeting. The participants held an exchange of views regarding these reports.

Ms. Konul Nurullayeva, a member of Parliament and PACE Committee on Equality and Discrimination, represented our country at this online meeting and delivered a speech regarding artificial intelligence (AI). Referring to the preliminary draft report, she agreed that the AI is transforming the way we live, and stressed some positive sides of it. According to her, the AI helps to detect unfair discrimination based on race or gender. At the same time, it can be applied in the health sector to measure a patient's overall health status and predict dangerous diseases. The AI speeds efforts to develop clean, virtually limitless fusion energy as well.

Along with the positive sides, K.Nurullayeva also touched upon the risks of the development and appliance of the AI. She noted that bias and discrimination could be generated by artificial intelligence because there is a gap between existing anti-discrimination laws and technology's new capabilities, and this gap is referred to as cultural lag. The MP also mentioned that existing anti-discrimination laws could lead to an overestimation of the fairness of the decision outcomes.

K.Nurullayeva also noted some prevention methods related to the AI. She grouped those methods in this way:

• Inclusion of additional anti-discrimination measures which help to reduce statistical bias
• To develop a code of conduct for the members of the organization to reduce discrimination
• Non-discrimination law and data protection law are the main legal instruments that could protect the right to non-discrimination.

K.Nurullayeva also brought Azerbaijan's approach to the AI to participants' attention and shared our country's experience with them: "Azerbaijan has a goal to adopt artificial intelligence in many spheres. It will soon be applied in the energy industry, education, justice, transportation, and human rights sectors.

The MP also considers that algorithms can perform better than human decision-makers in the future.