Addressing the Regulatory Gap: Moving Towards an EU AI Audit Ecosystem
  Beyond the AIA by Including Civil Society
David Hartmann José Renato Laranjeira de Pereira Chiara Streitbörger Bettina Berendt
The European legislature has proposed the Digital Services Act (DSA) and
Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) to regulate platforms and Artificial
Intelligence (AI) products. We review to what extent third-party audits are
part of both laws and to what extent access to models and data is provided. By
considering the value of third-party audits and third-party data access in an
audit ecosystem, we identify a regulatory gap in that the Artificial
Intelligence Act does not provide access to data for researchers and civil
society. Our contributions to the literature include: (1) Defining an AI audit
ecosystem that incorporates compliance and oversight. (2) Highlighting a
regulatory gap within the DSA and AIA regulatory framework, preventing the
establishment of an AI audit ecosystem. (3) Emphasizing that third-party audits
by research and civil society must be part of that ecosystem and demand that
the AIA include data and model access for certain AI products. We call for the
DSA to provide NGOs and investigative journalists with data access to platforms
by delegated acts and for adaptions and amendments of the AIA to provide
third-party audits and data and model access at least for high-risk systems to
close the regulatory gap. Regulations modeled after European Union AI
regulations should enable data access and third-party audits, fostering an AI
audit ecosystem that promotes compliance and oversight mechanisms.