In a draft law, the Government proposes to drastically reduce the protection of personal data, by allowing AI players to (almost) freely access the medical data of French people.
Artificial intelligence is now the new economic and social horizon of the French government. Fascinated by its promises, the executive wants to make France a “world leader” in this field, whatever the cost. It is with this in mind that it is preparing a bill aimed at “facilitating”, meaning opening to the four winds, access to citizens’ health data by developers of artificial intelligence tools.
This idea comes from from a report from the “AI Commission” from March 2024in which a panel of AI enthusiasts formulates twenty-five proposals intended to make France a “world leader” in this field. Among the recommendations put forward, the “expert group” proposes nothing less than offering AI developers almost total access to citizens’ health data, by breaking free from the legal barriers that currently protect this ultra-sensitive information.
On page 10 of the report, we can indeed read: “It is essential to facilitate access to personal data to enable their use in therapeutic innovations, in particular by removing certain procedures for prior authorization of access to health data and by reducing the response times of the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (CNIL). This requires reforming the mandate of the CNIL, to add an innovation objective to it.”.
This desire is also reaffirmed in the summary table of the report’s recommendations, in articles 10 (“Facilitating the circulation of data and the sharing of practices to reap the benefits of AI in care”) and 15 (“Transforming our approach to personal data to innovate better”). Behind these language elements marketing who fool no one, the ambition is clear: to break down all the legal barriers that prevent “AI players” from using citizens’ health data to train their software.
One could argue that this is just one of the countless reports produced each year by the various Théodule commissions and other external consulting firms, whose colorful PowerPoints are put away in a drawer as soon as the media attention has passed. However, this one seems to have had some effect on the minds of French political leaders, and to be promised a very concrete legislative future, as reported by Le Monde in an article from September 22, 2024.
In its article dedicated to Clara Chappaz, the new Secretary of State for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs, the newspaper points out that two proposals from the AI Commission report of March 2024 were included in the bill to simplify the economy. And among them is the removal of prior authorizations for the use of health data for training AI software. Although the vote on these new rules was put on hold by the surprise dissolution of the National Assembly last June, the file is indeed on Ms. Chappaz’s desk, and should therefore soon be back on track for its legislative adoption.