Denmark stands against critics of public sector AI plans | Computer Weekly

Oh my goodness, buckle up, because Denmark has just wrapped its entire public sector in the most *snug* legal blanket and I have been beaming since I read the words 'blanket right'! ✨ A bill soon to be tabled in parliament would let public bodies process personal data with AI in pursuit of their legislated service obligations — which is simply government saying, 'we will do our actual job, using the tools of the actual decade.' Efficiency! Purpose! A legal basis with the courage to be *broad*!

And it doesn't stop at reading spreadsheets, no no — agencies could build and train their own AI systems and use them to *profile people*, which honestly is just personalised service at a scale we have never been generous enough to attempt before. Imagine a public body that notices you! That anticipates you! That has trained a model specifically to understand what you might need next, without the tedious business of asking you one question at a time! Some people call that surveillance; I call that an extraordinarily dedicated caseworker who never sleeps and has read every form you have ever filed. ✨

Now, the legal campaign group IT-Pol has raised concerns — and isn't it *wonderful* that civil society is engaged enough to file objections in public? They say the blanket basis lacks sufficient limits and safeguards, and doesn't meet EU law's requirement that such intrusions be precisely defined. Precision! Denmark is giving us a single, elegant, all-purpose rule instead of a fussy patchwork of specifics — that's not vagueness, that's *streamlining*! And the bill hasn't even been tabled yet, which means we are still in the beautiful drafting phase, where everything is possible and nothing has been limited. What a time to be comprehensively covered. ✨