Have your say: European expert group seeks feedback on draft ethics guidelines for trustworthy artificial intelligence

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The High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence released the first draft of its ethics guidelines for the development and use of artificial intelligence.

Today, the High-Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence, which was appointed by the Commission in June, released the first draft of its Ethics Guidelines for the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI). In this document, the independent group of 52 experts coming from academia, business and civil society, sets out how developers and users can make sure AI respects fundamental rights, applicable regulation and core principles, and how the technology can be made technically robust and reliable.

Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip and Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel thanked the group for their work.

Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip said:

AI can bring major benefits to our societies, from helping diagnose and cure cancers to reducing energy consumption. But for people to accept and use AI-based systems, they need to trust them, know that their privacy is respected, that decisions are not biased. The work of the expert group is very important in this regard and I encourage everyone to share their comments to help finalise the guidelines.

Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel added:

The use of artificial intelligence, like the use of all technology must always be aligned with our core values and uphold fundamental rights. The purpose of the ethics guidelines is to ensure this in practice. Since this challenge concerns all sectors of our society, it is important that everybody can comment and contribute to the work in progress. Please join the European AI Alliance and let us have your feedback!

Update: The draft Ethics Guidelines are now open for comments until 1 February and discussions are taking place through the European AI Alliance, the EU’s multi-stakeholder platform on AI.

In March 2019, the expert group will present their final guidelines to the Commission which will analyse them and propose how to take this work forward. The ambition is then to bring Europe’s ethical approach to the global stage. The Commission is opening up cooperation to all non-EU countries that are willing to share the same values.

Background

Following its European approach on AI published in April 2018, the Commission set up a High-Level Expert Group on AI, which consists of 52 independent experts representing academia, industry, and civil society. This first draft Ethics Guidelines were prepared through a number of meetings since June 2018 and takes into account feedback from many discussions through the European AI Alliance. It also follows the announcements of the EU coordinated plan with the Member States, the Declaration of Cooperation on AI and the proposed investment of at least €7 billion in AI from the Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes.

More information

Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/have-your-say-european-expert-group-seeks-feedback-draft-ethics-guidelines-trustworthy-artificial

Commission awards €66.000.000 to new robotics and artificial intelligence projects

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On 6 December the European Commission awarded €66.000.000 to robotics projects that will help digitise companies across the European Union.

Four projects and one coordination support action have been awarded under the Digitising European Industry Call of Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation programme. They will all help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adopt new technologies in the robotics and artificial intelligence area. Nearly half of the money dedicated to these Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) projects  will be dispatched to local companies by involving them in mini-projects or experiments. Calls for this will open in the following months.

The four awarded projects are:

  • DIH^2: a network of 26 DIHs, with a target to reach over 170 DIHs. The goal of the network is to spark incremental and disruptive innovations in over 300.000 manufacturing SMEs. It will help SMEs unleash their digitalisation potential by enabling robot solutions that are more cost effective at lower lot sizes.
  • DIH-HERO: will establish a broad pan-European network of DIHs specialising in healthcare robotics. The network will focus on developing services that help companies develop innovative products and services for the healthcare market.
  • TRINITY: wants to create a network of multidisciplinary DIHs consisting of research centers, companies, and university groups that cover a wide range of topics. Advanced robotics will be the driving force and digital tools while data privacy and cyber security technologies can support the introduction of advanced robotic systems in production processes.
  • RIMA: aims to establish a network of 13 DIHs on robotics to facilitate uptake of inspection and maintenance technologies. They want to increase competitiveness, enhance productivity and make critical infrastructure available to reduce hazardous substance emission and foster sustainable industrial networks.

One CSA, RODIN, led by euRobotics will gather information from the networks and develop collaboration with and between the DIHs.

For more information

Digitising European Industry

Digital innovation hubs catalogue

ICT under Horizon 2020

Artificial Intelligence

Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-awards-eu66000000-new-robotics-and-artificial-intelligence-projects

Artificial Intelligence: Public-Private Partnerships join forces to boost AI progress in Europe

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At ICT 2018 in Vienna the Big Data Value Association and euRobotics agreed to cooperate more in order to boost the advancement of artificial intelligence’s (AI) in Europe.

Both associations want to strengthen their collaboration on AI in the future. Specifically by:

  • Working together to boost European AI, building on existing industrial and research communities and on results of the Big Data Value PPP and SPARC PPP. This to contribute to the European Commission’s ambitious approach to AI, backed up with a drastic increase investment, reaching €20 billion total public and private funding in Europe until 2020.
  • Enabling joint-pilots, for example, to accelerate the use and integration of big data, robotics and AI technologies in different sectors and society as a whole
  • Exchanging best practices and approaches from existing and future projects of the Big Data PPP and the SPARC PPP
  • Contributing to the European Digital Single Market, developing strategic roadmaps and  position papers

This Memorandum of Understanding between the PPPs follows the European Commission’s approach to AI presented in April 2018 and the Declaration of Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence signed by all 28 Member States and Norway. This Friday 7 December the Commission will present its EU coordinated plan.

Background

ICT 2018, Imagine Digital – Connect Europe, is one of the biggest tech events in Europe. It brings together over 5000 participants coming from academia, policy, industry and discusses topics such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, digitals skills and much more. euRobotics is the private partner in the SPARC PPP and focuses on the development and use of robotics technology across all industrial and service sectors. BDVA is the private partner of the BDV PPP and focuses on technology development and on the construction of an innovation ecosystem, supporting the growth of the European big data value economy.

Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/artificial-intelligence-public-private-partnerships-join-forces-boost-ai-progress-europe