The European Commission is on the verge of presenting the package of initiatives to make Europe a player in the digital revolution. After Vice-President Margrethe Vestager last week, EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton responded to journalists' questions on Monday 17 February.
This all-out communication is intended to concretise a key commitment of President Ursula von der Leyen, namely to present a strategy on artificial intelligence within the first 100 days of her term of office. Finally, three documents will see the light of day on Wednesday 19 February: - a general communication entitled 'A Europe fit for the digital age’ (see EUROPE 12419/11); - a Communication on industrial data (see EUROPE 12418/1); - and a public consultation on artificial intelligence (see EUROPE 12408/19).
The industrial data war
"One of the reasons why we don't have Facebook and Tencent is that we have never given European companies a complete single market in which to grow", Vestager told a small group of journalists last week.
Armed with this conviction, the European Commission intends to create a unified market for industrial data, the potential of which is currently under-used by companies. The pooling and sharing of data must make it possible to feed the algorithms that underlie artificial intelligence (AI).
"The war of industrial data starts now and Europe will be its main battlefield", said Thierry Breton on Monday in an interview with Les Échos.
On Wednesday, the Commission will present its ideas for winning this battle. A leaked version of the document encourages, in particular, the deployment of sectoral data spaces and action on the governance aspect. It also suggests mobilising a substantial financial envelope.
"The objective of the strategy on data is to work on platforms that have critical masses, on sector-specific data chains, value chains, and also on governance between public data and the use that can be made of it for business", commented Mr Breton in front of some journalists.
White Paper on Artificial Intelligence
In parallel, the European Commission will launch a 12-week public consultation on AI. It discusses a series of provisions related to funding, talent development, skills and technology deployment.
And it is this aspect that should generate the most debate: the Commission suggests that special attention be paid - via a conformity assessment, a competent authority and possible appeals - to risk applications, i.e. those used for certain uses or in certain sectors.
A voluntary labelling system will be recommended for non-risk applications, where there is sometimes a "grey area", Vestager explained. The Commission also proposes to evaluate the rules on safety and liability for defective products in order to identify shortcomings.
On the delicate issue of facial recognition, this technology is already widely used, for example to unlock a device or control a border... However, in Ms Vestager's view, it is worth considering "remote" recognition. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)