The EU's coordinated plan on artificial intelligence, to be published on 5 December, will address topics such as centres of excellence, experimentation, innovation, databases and training. This was suggested by the Deputy Director-General for the Digital Industry at the European Commission's DG Connect, Khalil Rouhana, at a round table on Monday 19 November at the French Permanent Representation to the EU.
"These days there are partnerships, such as in robotics or a public-private partnership in ‘big data’. The idea will be to put all these roadmaps together and merge them into one," Khalil Rouhana explained. This coordinated plan requires Member States to adopt a national strategy on artificial intelligence in the first quarter of 2019, which must include a training component.
The Deputy Director-General for the Digital Industry at DG Connect announced the release of €50 million to reinforce networking between centres of excellence. He also talked about €250 million between 2019 and 2020 to set up reference, experimentation and test sites, similar to what already exists for autonomous cars with 5G corridors (specifying that a call would be launched in June 2019). Khalil Rouhana also mentioned the strengthening of digital innovation hubs. "We invest around €100 million a year, every year, which should be complemented by 3 to 4 times more investment from Member States," he said. He also pointed out that the Commission was planning "at least €100 million to make the databases aggregatable and accessible". The coordinated plan will also include a 'training' component.
Khalil Rouhana also referred to the work currently being carried out by the expert group on artificial intelligence, confirming that their recommendations, particularly on ethical issues, would be published at the end of December/beginning of January 2019.
To conclude, he said: "Alongside the Member States we are currently studying all the legislation that may be affected by artificial intelligence and considering whether it is necessary to amend it or whether we need new legislation. We are not in a great hurry to change, but we would like, through experimentation and testing, to have more details on what needs to be done.” (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)