Aiming to promote the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the EU, the European Commission has proposed a coordinated plan on AI.
The plan comprises proposed joint actions between the Commission, EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland, building close, efficient cooperation between all the parties involved. The coordinated plan on AI will cover collaborative cross-border activity to increase investment in AI, widening availability of data, fostering talent in AI research and development; and increasing trust between participants.
Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip, who worked on the coordinated plan on AI, said: “I am pleased to see that European countries have made good progress. We agreed to work together to pool data – the raw material for AI – in sectors such as healthcare to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment. We will coordinate investments: our aim is to reach at least €20 billion of private and public investments by the end of 2020. This is essential for growth and jobs. AI is not a nice-to-have, it is about our future.”
The coordinated plan on AI comes as part of a wider movement across the EU to ensure the union becomes a world leader in developing technologies, particularly in artificial intelligence.
Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, said: “The coordinated plan on AI has a huge potential for Europe, as AI can deliver on key societal challenges such as the reduction of carbon emissions or the improvement of personalised healthcare, and we now need a common strategy on skills and investment as well as trust for European society, research and industry to flourish globally. The time has arrived to embrace AI with confidence and to maximise the technology industry know-how as well as Europe’s capacity to innovate in the respect of high ethical standards and in a safe and secure way. All policy-makers and stakeholders now need to focus on what future we want to create, and not what we want to prevent from happening.”
