ΑΙhub.org
 

European Commission releases white paper on artificial intelligence


by
21 February 2020



share this:

On Wednesday 19th February the European Commission released a white paper entitled: On Artificial Intelligence – A European approach to excellence and trust. This document forms part of the EU’s digital strategy, which aims to make the AI and data transformation work for people and businesses, while helping to achieve its target of a climate-neutral Europe by 2050.

With their strategies for AI and data, the EU aim to encourage businesses to work with, and develop, new technologies, while at the same time making sure that they earn citizens’ trust. Here is the opening to the white paper:

Artificial Intelligence is developing fast. It will change our lives by improving healthcare (e.g. making diagnosis more precise, enabling better prevention of diseases), increasing the efficiency of farming, contributing to climate change mitigation and adaptation, improving the efficiency of production systems through predictive maintenance, increasing the security of Europeans, and in many other ways that we can only begin to imagine. At the same time, Artificial Intelligence (AI) entails a number of potential risks, such as opaque decision-making, gender-based or other kinds of discrimination, intrusion in our private lives or being used for criminal purposes.

Against a background of fierce global competition, a solid European approach is needed, building on the European strategy for AI presented in April 2018. To address the opportunities and challenges of AI, the EU must act as one and define its own way, based on European values, to promote the development and deployment of AI.

The Commission is committed to enabling scientific breakthrough, to preserving the EU’s technological leadership and to ensuring that new technologies are at the service of all Europeans – improving their lives while respecting their rights…

…the Commission supports a regulatory and investment oriented approach with the twin objective of promoting the uptake of AI and of addressing the risks associated with certain uses of this new technology. The purpose of this White Paper is to set out policy options on how to achieve these objectives.

The white paper does not contain specific details about how AI technologies will be regulated, rather signals the start of a process that could lead to new legislation. The Commission needs more time to examine the multitude of complex issues relating to regulation and plans to advance carefully.

You can read the full document here. The European Commission have opened a public consultation on the matter and this will run until until 19 May 2020.

Watch European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveil the strategy:

Further documentation, including factsheets and communications can be found on the European Commission webpage.




Lucy Smith is Senior Managing Editor for AIhub.
Lucy Smith is Senior Managing Editor for AIhub.




            AIhub is supported by:



Related posts :

AAAI presidential panel – AI and sustainability

  13 Feb 2026
Watch the next discussion based on sustainability, one of the topics covered in the AAAI Future of AI Research report.

How can robots acquire skills through interactions with the physical world? An interview with Jiaheng Hu

  12 Feb 2026
Find out more about work published at the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL).

From Visual Question Answering to multimodal learning: an interview with Aishwarya Agrawal

and   11 Feb 2026
We hear from Aishwarya about research that received a 2019 AAAI / ACM SIGAI Doctoral Dissertation Award honourable mention.

Governing the rise of interactive AI will require behavioral insights

  10 Feb 2026
Yulu Pi writes about her work that was presented at the conference on AI, ethics and society (AIES 2025).

AI is coming to Olympic judging: what makes it a game changer?

  09 Feb 2026
Research suggests that trust, legitimacy, and cultural values may matter just as much as technical accuracy.

Sven Koenig wins the 2026 ACM/SIGAI Autonomous Agents Research Award

  06 Feb 2026
Sven honoured for his work on AI planning and search.

Congratulations to the #AAAI2026 award winners

  05 Feb 2026
Find out who has won the prestigious 2026 awards for their contributions to the field.

Forthcoming machine learning and AI seminars: February 2026 edition

  04 Feb 2026
A list of free-to-attend AI-related seminars that are scheduled to take place between 4 February and 31 March 2026.


AIhub is supported by:







 













©2026.01 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence