Addressing the regulatory gap: moving towards an EU AI audit ecosystem beyond the AI Act by including civil society

Abstract The European legislature has proposed the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) to regulate platforms and Artificial Intelligence (AI) products. We review to what extent third-party audits are part of both laws and how is access to information on models and the data provided. By considering the value of third-party audits and third-party data access in an audit ecosystem, we identify a regulatory gap in that the AIA does not provide access to data for researchers and civil society. Our contributions to the literature include: (1) Defining an AI audit ecosystem incorporating compliance and oversight. (2) Highlighting a regulatory gap within the DSA and AIA regulatory framework, preventing the establishment of an AI audit ecosystem that has effective oversight by civil society and academia. (3) Emphasizing that third-party audits by research and civil society must be part of that ecosystem, we call for AIA amendments and delegated acts to include data and model access for certain AI products. Furthermore, we call for the DSA to provide NGOs and investigative journalists with data access to platforms by delegated acts and for adaptions and amendments of the AIA to provide third-party audits and data and model access, at least for high-risk systems. Regulations modeled after EU AI regulations should enable data access and third-party audits, fostering an AI audit ecosystem that promotes compliance and oversight mechanisms.