Cybersecurity as a key to corporate accountability in Industry 4.0: the dual nature of AI in an industrial context 

Katerina Yordanova (KU Leuven)

The presentation summarises the work conducted in the scope of the SeCoIIA project (Secure Collaborative Intelligent Industrial Assets). It focuses on the question how the legal obligation to provide cybersecurity in the EU should be implemented in a way that mitigates adverse human rights impacts within the context of Industry 4.0, and the role of AI in the process. The presentation tackles the legal nature of cybersecurity as a material obligation and how AI, used in both its offensive and defensive capabilities, changes this paradigm. The talk pinpoints the main adverse human rights impacts in Industry 4.0, as well as how human rights due diligence could be utilized as a mitigation tool that incorporates AI systems conformity assessment.