“I’m often asked if all the benefits that digital solutions have brought us during the crisis have changed the Commission’s digital policy — have we been too critical of tech companies, too careful and too bureaucratic when it comes to digital technologies?” European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager said during the European AI Forum. “My answer to this is that our objectives are more relevant than ever.”
Vestager cited the Commission’s twin goals of promoting transition to a both green and a digital economy that works for everyone. Artificial intelligence, if properly developed, can work miracles, but it can also do harm: it can lead to discrimination and amplify our pre-existing prejudices and biases. In February, the Commission released a nonbinding White Paper which proposed distinguishing between “high-risk” AI applications, for which new and tough rules are needed, and “low-risk” technology, which needs less oversight.
Referring to around 1,200 submissions of feedback the Commission received, Vestager said she’s “aware, obviously, that it is not an easy thing to define which AI systems are high-risk and which are not.” She acknowledged despite what many respondents think, the Commission does not have its answer ready, and that “a thorough debate on how to deal with this technology” is needed.
Author: Janosch Delcker
https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/ai-decoded/politico-ai-decoded-the-ai-treaty-youve-never-heard-of-a-tech-industry-reckoning-sabre-rattling/ ; https://ec.europa.eu/commission/commissioners/2019-2024/vestager/announcements/opening-message-european-ai-forum_en