The US and China are leading the world when it comes to artificial intelligence research and investment – and Europe is increasingly being left behind. To this end, yesterday the European Commission outlined its plans to ramp up investment in AI to boost Europe’s competitiveness in this field.
Brussels has called for a cash injection of €20 billion to fund research in this field, with health, transport and agriculture among the key sectors it would look to prioritise.
According to Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, “Just as the steam engine and electricity did in the past, AI is transforming our world. It presents new challenges that Europe should meet together in order for AI to succeed and work for everyone. The Commission is playing its part: today, we are giving a boost to researchers so that they can develop the next generation of AI technologies and applications, and to companies, so that they can embrace and incorporate them.”
While the EU has two of the world’s largest robotics producers – Switzerland’s ABB and Germany’s Kuka – the latter was recently bought by a Chinese company while another promising startup, the UK’s DeepMind, was snapped up by Google. Add to this the fact that US tech firms have been enticing top British researchers away with big salary offers, and it points to the fact that the US and China have far greater spending power.
The EC has set out concrete plans to achieve its investment targets and close this gap. It has pledged to increase its spending by €1.5 billion in 2018–20 under the ‘Horizon 2020’ research programme. It hopes this will also trigger an additional €2.5 billion of funding from existing public-private partnerships. It will also support the development of an ‘AI-on-demand platform’ that will provide access to relevant AI resources in the EU for all users.
This comes after the commission’s recent refusal to grant robots electronic ‘personhood’, potentially allowing them to be sued in courts in the event of industrial accidents. Rather than take this step, the commission has agreed to appoint a committee to draw up ethical guidelines on the use of AI and robotics in the workplace, set to convene in July.