The Regulation Of AI – What Next?

Upon taking office late last year EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged publically that in her first 100 days in office she would put forward legislation for a coordinated European approach on the human and ethical implications of artificial intelligence. The High Level Expert Group set up to advise the EU Commission on ethical and trustworthy AI had cautioned against imposing any one-size-fits-all rules on low-risk AI applications, in particular, on the basis that many are still in an early stage of development. The logic being, if we don’t understand fully the scope of application and reach of this AI how can we regulate the sector? This pro-regulation but cautious approach to the scope of regulation seems to reflect market views also (see the timely recent interview by Sundar Pichai of Google).