Towards experimental standardization for AI governance in the EU
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The EU has adopted a hybrid governance approach to address the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI), emphasizing the role of harmonized European standards (HES). Despite advantages in expertise and flexibility, HES processes face legitimacy problems and struggle with epistemic gaps in the context of AI. This article addresses the problems that characterize HES processes by outlining the conceptual need, theoretical basis, and practical application of experimental standardization, which is defined as an ex-ante evaluation method that can be used to test standards for their effects and effectiveness. Experimental standardization is based on theoretical and practical developments in experimental governance, legislation, and innovation. Aligned with ideas and frameworks like Science for Policy and evidence-based policymaking, it enables co-creation between science and policymaking. We apply the proposed concept in the context of HES processes, where we submit that experimental standardization contributes to increasing throughput and output legitimacy, addressing epistemic gaps, and generating new regulatory knowledge.
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Most current governance measures remain focused on behavioral norm declarations, the enhancement of detection tools, and case-based corrective actions, which are essentially 'peripheral patchwork' responses.
“Most current governance measures remain focused on behavioral norm declarations (Prifti & Fosch-Villaronga, 2024), the enhancement of detection tools (Perkins et al., 2023), and case-based corrective actions (Pudasaini et al., 2024), which are essentially 'peripheral patchwork' responses.”
From The Attention Mismatch: Mapping the Structural Academic Governance Deficit in the Age of Generative AI (2026) · cites this paper as Prifti & Fosch-Villaronga, 2024
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- Authors
- Prifti, K., & Fosch-Villaronga, E.
- Affiliations
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Prifti, Kostina
- Venue
- Computer Law & Security Review
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2024-04
- Volume
- 52
- Pages
- 105959
- ISSN
- 2212-473X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4392935083
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 78
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1
- FWCI
- 30.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Computer law & security review (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- EUR Research Repository (Erasmus University Rotterdam) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- European Research Council
- Nederland Ministerie van Onderwijs Cultuur en Wetenschap
- European Commission
- Ministerul Educației, Culturii și Cercetării
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Law › Digitalization, Law, and Regulation
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Regulation and Compliance Studies
- Keywords
- experimental standardization, AI governance, experimental governance, epistemic gap, evidence-based policy, science for policy, AI regulation, EU AI policy
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