数字孪生时代的法律与问责——通过技术标准透视算法黑箱

Law and Accountability in the Age of Digital Twinning

我国的数字化转型正进入数字孪生时代,现实世界与虚拟世界出现"虚实相生"甚至"以虚运实"的趋势。在数字孪生系统的分层体系下,通过算法黑箱将模型和数据封装于交互界面之后是一种常见的工程模式,在化简技术复杂性的同时也导致"规则隔音"现象日益严重。决策规则的隐而不显致使事后法律问责难以奏效,而追求算法透明的披露手段在与技术复杂性和商业秘密的冲突中不断妥协,逐渐成为强弩之末。实际上,无论事前规制还是事后问责都需要以法律系统与算法系统的良性互动为前提。借助技术标准的场景性、灵活性、技术性等优势,可以制定信息交换的结构性元规则促进算法与法律的跨系统沟通。此外,应当通过算法标准自我声明机制推动软法的"硬化",规范算法贴标逐渐消灭"无标生产",构建软法硬法混合算法规制模式。

China’s digital transformation is entering the Era of Digital Twin,and the integration of the real world and the digital world has become inevitable.Under the hierarchical framework of the digital twin system,it is a common engineering mode to encapsulate model and data behind the interaction interface through algorithm black box.While simplifying the technical complexity,such a practice leads to the problem of"acoustic separation of rules"-the invisibility of decision rules makes it difficult to enforce ex post legal accountability.Besides,algorithm transparency,a representative ex ante regulation strategy,attempts to break the boundaries of the algorithm system,came into complex conflicts with issues such as trade secrets,state secrets,and technical feasibility,and has fallen into a crisis of coherence in constant compromise.The successful regulation of algorithm black box depends on the effective communication between the legal system and the algorithmic system.With the help of technical standards,which are more contextual,flexible,and technology-oriented than hard laws,it is possible to formulate structural meta-rules for information exchange,therefore promoting the inter-system communication between algorithms and laws.Moreover,it is necessary to establish a self-declaration mechanism for algorithm standards to promote the"hardening of soft law",to eliminate the situation that algorithms are produced without standards via algorithm labeling,and to construct a mixed regulatory framework consisting of both soft law and hard law.