The president of the European Commission visited the center for the artificial intelligence of the Flemish University in Brussels, where around 200 people work on projects partly financed by the EU.
ADVERTISEMENTTalking with robots might be good fun for Ursula Von der Leyen, but regulating artificial intelligence (AI) is no laughing matter.
The President of the European Commission on Tuesday visited a centre for artificial intelligence at a university in Brussels.
Her visit comes ahead of a long-awaited presentation of the EU's strategy on artificial intelligence, planned for Wednesday.
“I could see here how AI is serving the people," Von der Leyen said. "You see an application that helps people in their daily life and it was fascinating to see that. In general, technology is neutral and it depends on us what we make out of it.”
Indeed, AI has become crucial for innovation in various sectors, from healthcare to transport. But it also presents risks for individual privacy.
The EU wants to be the first place in the world to regulate this sector to ensure that ethics, transparency, safety, and liability are respected.
These new EU rules will have consequences for big tech companies.
So it's perhaps no surprise that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg came to Brussels last week, to meet top EU officials just ahead of the announcement.
EU plans such as privacy regulations have an impact far outside Europe's borders, and any new laws on artificial intelligence could have similar effects.