The EU's Strategy For AI Investment

The European Union has laid out a strategy to promote the growth of Artificial Intelligence technology in Europe. As so often with EU initiatives, the initiatives designed to implement the strategy are long on vision but short on specific practical changes. EU-based entities will welcome major government-level investment and support for AI technology development but would have been even more grateful if the EU had clarified, for example, specific issues on how privacy law interfaces with AI.

In its 2017 mid-term review of the EU Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy, the European Commission highlighted the importance of ensuring that the EU establishes itself as a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) sphere. Following some prompting from the European Council in October 2017, which urged the Commission to "put forward a European approach" to AI, the Commission has published a communication on AI for Europe (the "Communication"). The Communication sets out the