The Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC) of Malta spoke at a conference on the implementation of the artificial intelligence (AI) regulation and its convergence with the GDPR.

During a session aimed at public sector stakeholders and organized by the Maltese Digital Innovation Authority (MDIA), a legal advisor from the IDPC emphasized the close link between the AI regulation and the GDPR, stating that strong data protection safeguards form the foundation of reliable and compliant AI systems. He explained how integrating data protection principles by design and by default can help meet regulatory requirements for high-risk AI systems. The importance of an ethics-by-design approach was also highlighted to promote responsible and human-centered AI governance.

In a second intervention focused on the health sector, the same representative addressed the use of health data in AI-based medical technologies. He expressed concerns about the challenges of reconciling the doctor-patient relationship with the safeguards surrounding automated decision-making under article 22 of the GDPR. Interest in privacy-preserving data cleaning techniques to achieve anonymization was highlighted as a means to enable innovation while protecting patients' rights, provided their effectiveness is proven both from a compliance and medical accuracy perspective.