Artificial intelligence presents as many opportunities as it does challenges. This is the conclusion of an event organised on Wednesday 18 April by the Bruegel reflection circle, which was examining the impact of robots on employment, wages and the economy.
Georgios Petropoulos, a researcher with the reflection circle presented it with a study demonstrating that between 1999 and 2017, industrial robots had had a significant effect on jobs, mainly with regard to young and semiskilled workers but almost no effect on wages. Mario Mariniello, from the Commission’s European Policy Strategy Centre emphasised that Europe needed to “create an artificial intelligence support framework” and “identify and tackle social risks by establishing global quality standards". Clara Neppel from the Institute of Electrical Engineers and Electricians (IEEE), spoke in a personal capacity on intellectual property questions. She raised the question of limitations on the current framework and drew attention to the need to tackle the question of access.
It should be recalled that the European Commission is due to present its strategy on artificial intelligence on around 25 April. According to the draft paper leaked to the press, the roadmap will be based on three areas of work: (1) stimulating the EU's technological and industrial capability in the area of AI; (2) tackling ethical and legal questions (whilst examining security, liability, transparency and data access); (3) responding to socio-economic challenges (see EUROPE 11987). (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)