Years after first identifying the potential risks of AI systems, world leaders are having to balance concerns with an acknowledgment of the gains achievable through certain AI systems and nowhere is this more true than the EU.
The Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris has seen a number of high-profile announcements made on EU AI investments, on both a continental and regional basis. But it’s also highlighted the distance the EU has yet to go for true international AI competition – up against the likes of the US and China, can it continue to stand out?
In this episode, Jane and Rory welcome Nader Henein, Gartner VP analyst, Data Protection and AI Governance, to discuss the finer details of EU AI and how public-private partnerships balance with its strong legal requirements for the technology.
Highlights
"There's a fair bit of AI development having happening at the sectoral level in pharmaceutical development, for example, there's a lot have there's a lot happening in medicine. So there's a lot happening. It might not be as newsworthy as something like Mistral or it might not be a unicorn worth multiple billions of dollars or euros, I should say. But there's a lot happening in Europe, from an AI perspective."
"I need to reach, pick up the phone and speak to the vendor, because there's not a piece of software that can scan my SaaS solution and tell me that, 'Oh, this SaaS solution you're using, the CRM and the cloud that you're using, it has 26 AI-enabled features, of which six are high risk. So you better pay attention to those and get a bit more detail'. Nothing's going to do that for you. You have to pick up the phone and speak to the vendor."
"And Ursula [von der Leyen] said – it was very nuanced yesterday – she made a comment, a throwaway comment in her speech, that you have 27 countries with one piece of legislation, one set of rules. And the fact of the matter is, for any business and for any outsider looking in, the US is going to be one country with 50 different laws. Even if the federal government gets out of the way. In fact, the federal government federal government had introduced AI regulation from the very beginning, there's a good chance that most states would have said that's what I'm going to follow."
Footnotes
- UK and US reject Paris AI summit agreement as “Atlantic rift” on regulation grows
- Unraveling the EU AI Act
- The EU just shelved its AI liability directive
- A big enforcement deadline for the EU AI Act just passed – here's what you need to know
- Looking to use DeepSeek R1 in the EU? This new study shows it’s missing key criteria to comply with the EU AI Act
- How the EU AI Act compares to other international regulatory approaches
- UK regions invited to apply for ‘AI Growth Zone’ status
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