The one-day International Artificial Intelligence Summit in the heart of the EU sought to find answers to many of the questions around global AI regulatory cooperation, and what it will mean in practice.
ADVERTISEMENTThe rise of artificial intelligence and its ever-increasing presence in our daily lives has sparked a plethora of debates.
Among those, the question of its governance has emerged as one of the most pressing issues of our time, with Brussels at the forefront of the race to regulate AI with its flagship AI Act.
However, regulation does not come without its own hurdles, and solutions are bound to determine the future of tech and Europe’s citizens alike.
“AI is a global challenge that doesn’t recognise borders,” Ireland's Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney said in his keynote address at the International Artificial Intelligence Summit 2023 organised by Euronews in Brussels on Wednesday.
“The EU can’t do it alone. It must build an alliance and it must at least try to reach a global consensus.”
The first panel’s experts also flagged the need for regulation to be future-proof.
“Regulation shouldn’t be created on something that we don’t fully understand yet. Over-regulation also stifles innovation,” CEO of Radix Davio Larnout pointed out.
And the effect is predicted to be enormous. “The regulations that are created now have a direct impact on what businesses will invest in now and in the future,” Amazon’s Vice President & AGC Bob Kimball said.
International cooperation has also been a key focus of discussions at the summit in the European Union capital. Rebecca Arcesati, a lead analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies said that Beijing is trying to present itself as a "responsible player" on the world stage when it comes to AI.
"It’s quite clear that China wants to have a seat at the AI table. It has been trying for years," Arcesati added.
Matt Sheehan from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the audience that "cooperation on AI is very much going to shaped by the West's geopolitical relationship with China".
The summit, presented by Euronews and Forum Europe and curated by Cameron Kerry and Joshua Meltzer of The Brookings Institution and Andrea Renda of the Centre for European Policy Studies — founders of the Forum for Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence — aimed to start the search for answers to many of the questions around global regulatory cooperation, and what it will mean in practice.
The one-day event hosted experts, leaders and decision-makers to discuss, debate, and find solutions to how to cement international collaboration, including the role of standards, common principles, accountability and oversight; build responsible AI, factoring in ethics and human rights; and prioritise cooperation on research and development in areas of most benefit.
Throughout the day, the summit also featured a closing keynote speech by European Commission Vice-President Věra Jourová.
Watch the event in its entirety in the player above.
