Agency of Access to Public Information Creates Transparency and Personal Data Protection Program for Using Artificial Intelligence

Very recently, the Agency of Access to Public Information issued Resolution No. 161/23, creating the Program for Transparency and Personal Data Protection in the use of Artificial Intelligence. The Agency considered it was necessary to strengthen the institutional capacities that allow incorporating transparency and personal data protection in the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI).

The Program’s general objective is to promote processes to analyze, regulate, and strengthen those state capacities necessary to follow the development and use of AI, guaranteeing the effective exercise of citizens' rights regarding transparency and personal data protection. The aims of the Program include:

• Building knowledge to identify good practices, learning, and recommendations on transparency, algorithmic transparency, and protection of personal data in the use of AI.
• Carrying out actions to strengthen institutional capacities of key actors in the implementation of AI.
• Promoting participative processes for generating AI regulatory proposals in Argentina.

Moreover, the Program establishes certain components and activities: the Observatory on Artificial Intelligence, a governance and social participation component, and the strengthening of the capacities of Transparency and Personal Data protection in the use of AI.

These three components include different lines of action:

• Mapping key actors engaged in the subject (including non-governmental parties).
• Monitoring regional and global advances in the regulation of AI-based technological developments.
• Participative development of strategies for the impact of AI use.
• Best-practice guidelines for public and private entities on transparency and personal data protection in the use of AI.
• Documenting Automated Decision Systems (SDA) and publishing transparency criteria in the National Transparency Portal.

This resolution is related to other recommendations adopted by international organizations to which Argentina adheres, including recommendations issued in 2019 by the Organization for Economic co-operation and Development (OECD), those issued by UNESCO in 2021 and, locally, those issued by the Undersecretariat of Information Technology in 2023.

A week after this resolution was issued, the President’s Chief of Staff also issued Administrative Decision No. 750/2023, creating the Inter-Ministerial Roundtable on AI, headed by the Chief of Staff Office. This Roundtable seeks to address the progress and application of this technology in various sectors of the economy and the society. It will be made up of different Ministries, including those of Science and Technology. It will also be in charge of coordinating an open dialogue and analyzing the use of AI and the risks associated with it for public and private companies and for individuals. The administrative decision aims to create a space for dialogue and analysis to examine this technology’s impact on the socio-economic reality of Argentina.

For now, the Program and the Inter-Ministerial Roundtable are part of the non-binding regulations on AI.

The Agency seems to be creating a new space for reflecting and analyzing artificial intelligence. It is important that industry and technical experts participate in these spaces for reflection, to make their needs known, and to come up with solutions for Argentina’s greater development and innovation.