Earlier this week, the European Union published a possible strategy for making ethics a fundamental part of artificial intelligence (AI) research and development.
According to European Commissioner Andrus Ansip, “[t]he ethical dimension of AI is not a luxury feature or an add-on.” Instead, he believes that “[i]t is only with trust that our society can fully benefit from technologies.” The timing of the EU document is significant because Google dissolved its own AI ethics council just days before following controversy over some of the members it had chosen for the body. As a result, the EU is now the first major player to publish a set of potential guidelines for ethical AI.
In terms of AI development, the EU is lagging behind China and the US. While Europe invested 2.4 to 3.2 billion euros ($2.7-4.15 billion) in AI in 2016, Asian investments for that year totaled $10.9 billion, while North America invested $20.9 billion.
Read more: EU beats Google to the punch in setting strategy for ethical A.I.
