In an opinion adopted on Thursday 13 October, the MEPs of the industry, research and energy (ITRE) committee observe that productivity increases are higher when robots and humans work together and that future legislation must therefore be geared to this finding.
The MEPs take the view that the own-initiative legislative report by Mady Delvaux (S&D, Luxembourg) on the civil law rules on robotics focuses too much on robots and should do more to promote cooperation between robots and humans. According to the opinion, the productivity of a team made up of both robots and humans can be up to 85% higher than that of a team made up of just robots or just humans.
The MEPs therefore call on the Commission to take steps to promote an open environment, which may be done by means of innovative standards and licenses. For instance, robots function on algorithms and programmes, which cannot remain in the exclusive domain of the company which produces them, a source explained. They are also calling for a definition of a framework for the necessary connectivity requirements to create universal connectivity and answer the needs of the development of artificial intelligence and innovation in the field of robotics. In another major point, the MEPs stressed the need for the Commission, working together with various actors from society, to draw up an ethical code of conduct to guide them in their work.
One of the main concerns expressed by the MEPs, who agreed on this in the amendments, relates to the social consequences of automation and its impact on the model of our companies.
The prescriptive approach described by Delvaux also came in for criticism. Some of the committee members feel that there is no need to legislate on issues that do not currently exist. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)