Greece seeks constitutional rule requiring AI to serve human society

Greece is trying to do something few democracies have attempted: put a rule about artificial intelligence into the constitution itself, not leave it to ordinary regulation. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has backed a revision that would require AI to serve individual freedom and social prosperity, while its risks are reduced and its benefits fully realized.

That move would place AI limits in Greece’s highest legal framework, making the country a case study for whether foundational law can keep pace with fast-moving technologies. Mitsotakis has cast the amendments as part of a broader effort to ensure the constitution stays relevant to democracy, climate policy and public administration, rather than treating AI as just another industry subject to later rulemaking.

The hurdle is steep. Under article 110 of the Greek constitution, revisions must pass through two successive parliaments, and the Hellenic Parliament says the process is handled as an autonomous parliamentary exercise, without formal involvement by the president or the government. Greece’s current constitution entered into force on June 11, 1975, and has been revised only four times, in 1986, 2001, 2008 and 2019. The 2001 overhaul was described by parliament as the most extensive and a product of broad consensus.

The AI language sits inside a wider package that also includes expanding postal voting, raising mandatory schooling from nine to 11 years and banning retroactive taxation. It comes as Greece has already pushed digital government deep into daily life through gov.gr, the state portal that hosts online services from ministries, organizations, authorities and regions. The country is also using AI in public functions such as border surveillance and tax administration, giving the debate immediate practical weight.

Athens has been building a policy architecture around the technology. A High Level Advisory Committee on Artificial Intelligence under the prime minister was established in November 2023, and the European Commission has said Greece is still developing its national AI strategy. At the same time, Mitsotakis announced draft legislation in April 2026 to ban social media use for children under 15, arguing the platforms’ addictive design and attention-based business models justify stronger limits, and urging the European Union to consider similar action.

Greek legal commentary has already raised a central question: whether a constitutional reference to AI will matter unless it carries enforceable legal effect. That tension may define the experiment. If Greece succeeds, it could offer other democracies a model for treating artificial intelligence not as a force to accommodate, but as a tool that must remain subordinate to human rights and social welfare.