Constitutional Challenges and Regulatory Framework: Will the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act Ensure Adequate Protection of Fundamental Rights and Democracy?

The development of data-driven technologies and particularly of artificial intelligence entails, together with opportunities, serious risks for the individuals and society, including discrimination, manipulation, adverse impact on fundamental rights and democracy. Liberal-democratic societies are therefore called to address major constitutional challenges, by providing adequate legal responses, which should ensure a responsible use of new technologies, consistent with the overriding need to safeguard constitutional values. The need for a regulatory framework is especially felt in Europe, within both the Council of Europe and the European Union, although approaches and tools are partially different. A more advanced awareness of present challenges is shown by recent CoE non-binding texts, based on a human rights-centred approach, whereas the EU, since the 2016 General Data Protection Regulation, has adopted a strategy based on a twofold approach, aiming to combine the development of digital economy with the safeguard of constitutional values. This paper presents a critical analysis of the AI Act, a fundamental part of such strategy, and regards it from a Constitutional Law perspective, by assessing its capacity to ensure adequate protection of fundamental rights and democracy.The analysis is intended to highlight the act's weaknesses and necessary changes.