The European Ministers responsible for Competitiveness are expected to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) once again at their meeting in Brussels on Monday, 18 February. The Romanian Presidency of the Council will invite them to give their opinion on the weaknesses of the coordinated plan on artificial intelligence and to present the progress of their work before adopting Council’s conclusions on this matter.
The development of artificial intelligence has become a priority for the European Union, so that it does not fall behind China and the United States. At present, a quarter of the industrial robots and half of the professional service robots in the world are produced by European companies, acknowledges the Romanian Presidency in a preparatory document.
The draft conclusions express the Ministers’ satisfaction with the various initiatives launched by the European Commission and, in particular, with the December 2018 coordinated plan on artificial intelligence (see EUROPE 12155). It emphasises the importance of investment, R&D, and technological excellence.
One of the most interesting passages concerns regulation: in fact, the text calls for legislation to be revised, where appropriate, in accordance with the ‘Better Law-Making’ approach. This is to take into account the challenges and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence, including issues such as security, privacy, and responsibility as well as decisions made and actions taken without human interaction. For the rest, the draft text recognises the need to strengthen the fundamental capacities of artificial intelligence in the EU, notably data resources—trusted mechanisms for data exchange, such as virtual data warehouses and algorithm libraries. It also emphasises the need for specific actions at the EU level to keep AI researchers and specialists in Europe, in addition to national measures.
The debate surrounding the adoption of these conclusions will focus on two specific issues: (1) the challenges faced by States in designing and implementing their national AI strategies, all of which are expected to be completed by mid-2019; (2) additional measures to those contained in the coordinated plan on AI that could maximize the benefits of its use to contribute to the competitiveness of the industry and SMEs over the next decade. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)