Danish public sector gets legal right to use artificial intelligence

Denmark's public sector is set to get a clearer legal basis for using artificial intelligence. A long-awaited and contested bill from Christina Egelund (M), the minister for research, education and digitalisation, is meant to take effect on 1 February. It is intended to end the legal grey zone that has surrounded the technology in public administration.

The bill is meant to let authorities across the country begin using AI more widely within a little under three months of the article's publication on 10 November. The law gives the public sector permission to use the technology, but with certain limitations. The text available does not spell out what those limitations are.

Egelund says it is important to get out of the legal grey zone. She is now setting the guidelines for how AI may be used in the public sector.

The source text is only the opening of the piece, so it gives no detail on which applications are covered, what the restrictions involve, or what the criticism of the bill consists of. It describes the proposal only as "omstridt" (contested), without saying who opposes it or why.

The significance is that public bodies have lacked clear legal footing for AI use, and the bill is designed to provide it from February.