Regulating AI manipulation: Applying Insights from behavioral economics and psychology to enhance the practicality of the EU AI Act
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The EU AI Act Article 5 is designed to regulate AI manipulation to prevent potential harmful consequences. However, the practical implementation of this legislation is challenging due to the ambiguous terminologies and the unclear presentations of manipulative techniques. Moreover, the Article 5 also suffers criticize of inadequate protective efficacy. This paper attempts to clarify terminologies and to enhance the protective efficacy by integrating insights from psychology and behavioral economics. Firstly, this paper employs cognitive psychology research to elucidate the term subliminal techniques and its associated representation. Additionally, this paper extends the study of heuristics: a set of thinking shortcuts which can be aroused for behavior changing from behavior economics to the realm of manipulative techniques. The elucidation and expansion of terminologies not only provide a more accurate understanding of the legal provision but also enhance its protective efficacy. Secondly, this paper proposes five classical heuristics and their associated examples to illustrate how can AI arouse those heuristics to alter users behavior. The enumeration of heuristics serves as a practical guide for stakeholders such as AI developers, algorithm auditors, users, and legal practitioners, enabling them to identify manipulative techniques and implement countermeasures. Finally, this paper critically evaluates the protective efficacy of Article 5 for both the general public and vulnerable groups. This paper argues that the current protective efficacy of Article 5 is insufficient and thus proposes specific revision suggestions to terms a and b in Article 5 to enhance its protective efficacy. This work contributes to the ongoing discourse on AI ethics and legal regulations, providing a practical guide for interpreting and applying the EU AI Act Article 5.
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