A Constitutionally Oriented Reading of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act

Much has been written about the content of the AIA – or, rather, the provisional texts that were gradually made public by the EU institutions involved in the decision-making process – and much more will be written in the coming months, now that the final text of the Act is available in its authentic form. This contribution is not intended to add to these commentaries with further analysis on the content of the AIA. Rather, building on previous commentaries, the purpose of the contribution is to highlight how the AIA fits into the context of what has been called the constitutionalisation process of the European digital transition, meaning the gradual anchoring of the EU digitalisation to the constitutional framework of the Union. Moving from this premise, this contribution contains some brief reflections on the elements that make it possible to bring the AIA within the current process of constitutionalisation of the EU digital order. The analysis is preceded by a brief reference to the prospective point of view adopted by the EU institutions in tracing the trajectories of European digital constitutionalism, i.e. the adoption of a doctrine marked by the affirmation of the strategic autonomy of the Union, which then evolved through the affirmation of a (self-proclaimed) European digital sovereignty.