BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – FEBRUARY 19: Executive Vice President of the European Commission for a Europe … [+]
So much uncertainty surrounds AI that the European Union is now opening a brand new office to study how AI can enable social and economic benefits and innovation while mitigating the risks.
The European Office of Artificial Intelligence will be the hub of AI expertise across the EU, tasked with providing advice on best practice for AI uptake, but also on regulation and compliance, security, robotics , artificial intelligence for social good and innovation.
Furthermore, the EU aims to ensure that the EU bloc becomes a global benchmark for AI governance, with the potential to integrate the European approach to AI at international level.
According to the statistical agency of the European Union Eurostat, just 8% of European companies with over ten employees have used artificial intelligence in the last year, particularly in Denmark, Finland and Luxembourg. These companies have used AI to perform simple tasks such as automating different workflows or assisting in decision making.
The European AI ecosystem is set to grow in size in the coming years and the Office will provide the direction to be innovative, competitive and respect EU rules and values.
Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president of the European Commission, said the office “will help ensure the coherent implementation of the AI Act. Together with developers and a scientific community, the office will assess and test general-purpose artificial intelligence to ensure that AI serves us as humans and defend our European values.”
The AI Act, agreed by co-legislators in December 2023, is the world’s first comprehensive law on Artificial Intelligence. The law will enter into force at the end of June, immediately after the European elections, and in the previous months the Commission tried to define the leadership of the Office and its tasks.
Lucilla Sioli, currently Director for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Industry at the European Commission, will officially lead the AI Office. About 140 experts will work in the AI Office, but so far, the European Commission noted, only 60 people have been selected from other units of the same institution.
Some lawmakers are negative about the regulation of the AI Office: “Today, the public was presented with a visionless structure that simply involves minor restructuring of existing Commission units.” wrote MEP Svenia Hahn.
