The course “Artificial Intelligence and Constitution” (7 CFU), included in the scientific-disciplinary sector IUS/08, “Constitutional law”, aims to offer students a specialized training course to understand the main legal issues posed by development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems.

What calls for a course on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and the protection of fundamental rights is the awareness that in the context of technological innovation and digital transformation of society, it is necessary to focus on aspects related to the fundamental rights of the individual, which represent a consolidated heritage of the European legal tradition, both at the level of individual national legal systems and of the European Union as a whole.
The proposed course is also linked to the II level Masters on “Data protection officer and Privacy expert”, organized under the patronage of the Italian Data Protection Authority, and to the Elements of AI course, product of the collaboration of the University of Helsinki with Cotec Foundation, Roma Tre University and the Minister for Technological Innovation and Digitization.

In this context, the goal is to strengthen the legal skills of students on the subject of fundamental rights protection, through the study of rules and principles set by legislation and jurisprudence, also paying attention to ethical profiles and constitutional guarantees related to the use of algorithms in the public and private sector.

For this reason, the rights of the individual cannot be underestimated, both as a citizen and as a user of public and private services. Therefore the initiatives promoted at European and national level for the protection of the individual must be highlighted: on the one hand, the many interventions at European and supranational level (among which are mentioned: Recommendations of the European Parliament concerning the framework relating to ethics of artificial intelligence, robotics and related technologies, of October 2020; the European Commission's White Paper on Artificial Intelligence of 2020; the Resolution containing recommendations to the Commission on civil law rules on robotics of the EP of 2017; the Report on the relationship between artificial intelligence and fundamental rights of the European Fundamental Rights Agency of December 2020); on the other hand, in 2018 the AGID published a White Paper on the subject of Artificial Intelligence at the service of citizens. Furthermore, since the increasingly strong need to innovate both the private and public sectors, the Group of Experts on Artificial Intelligence of the Ministry of Economic Development presented in 2019 its proposals for the Italian strategy for employment of AI technologies, highlighting how the public sector can be the “flywheel of Italian RenAIssance”. The proposal was definitively published in mid-2020 and, in the same period, AGID and the Department for Digital Transformation presented the three-year plan for information technology in Public Administration 2020 - 2022, which indicates the guidelines to promote the digital transformation of the public sector.

In this regard, we cannot fail to highlight that the digital transition represents one of the keys to the post-pandemic recovery and, with the Recovery Plan, new investments in the sector of new technologies and Artificial Intelligence will open up new scenarios and new opportunities. However, we cannot leave out of consideration a conscious and responsible approach, which avoids discrimination and the increase in inequalities. Artificial Intelligence must be a means for the full development of the human person, according to a human-centered approach, in accordance with constitutional values.

Consequently, it is necessary to deepen these issues, to offer students the necessary tools to face the change underway in a conscious way.