Ensuring Responsible AI Use: Guide for Transparency and Data Protection in Argentina

By Estudio Chaloupka

The Agency for Access to Public Information (AAIP) in Argentina has released a comprehensive guide designed for both public and private entities, focusing on the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This initiative underscores the importance of upholding citizens' rights to transparency and the protection of personal data amid the growing adoption of AI technologies.

The guide addresses critical concerns associated with AI, especially as organizations increasingly leverage these tools to personalize user experiences, make data-driven decisions, automate processes, and enhance efficiency. Recognizing the potential risks, the AAIP emphasizes the need for a structured approach throughout the entire lifecycle of AI systems—from their design and implementation to ongoing maintenance.

Central to the guide are two key areas: algorithmic transparency and personal data protection. The AAIP encourages organizations to conduct thorough impact assessments to identify and mitigate potential risks to data privacy before deploying AI solutions. This proactive measure is vital for ensuring that the introduction of AI does not compromise citizens' rights.

Moreover, the guide advocates for the formation of multidisciplinary teams, bringing together diverse expertise to address both the technical and ethical challenges posed by AI. It stresses the importance of explainability, asserting that AI systems should be transparent and understandable, even as this may present certain technical challenges.

Protecting personal data is another critical aspect highlighted in the guide, as organizations are urged to implement robust security measures that safeguard personal information and ensure that individuals’ rights are respected throughout the data handling process.

The AI boom, including the advent of large language models (LLMs) and their associated chatbots, poses new challenges for privacy. Jennifer King, privacy and data policy fellow at the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (Stanford HAI), and Caroline Meinhardt, Stanford HAI’s policy research manager, published a white paper titled “Rethinking Privacy in the AI Era: Policy Provocations for a Data-Centric World.” 

According to the authors, AI systems pose many of the same privacy risks faced during the past decades of internet commercialization and mostly unrestrained data collection. The difference is the scale: AI systems are so data-hungry and intransparent that there is even less control over what information about people is collected, what it is used for, and how it might be possible to correct or remove such personal information. 

Second, there's the risk of others using personal data and AI tools for anti-social purposes. For example, generative AI tools trained with data scraped from the internet may memorize personal information about people, as well as relational data about their family and friends. This data helps enable spear-phishing—the deliberate targeting of people for purposes of identity theft or fraud.