Artificial intelligence made in Europe: What will Alexa say?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most transformative forces of our time and is bound to alter the fabric of society. Over the last decade, major advances were realised due to the availability of vast amounts of digital data, powerful computing architectures and advances in Al techniques such as machine learning.

Al-based applications are already in use in numerous areas of life and present a great opportunity to increase prosperity and growth. At the same time numerous questions arise over the long-term impact of AI technologies on humankind. This is why the topic is high on the global policy agenda. International organisations: UNESCO, OECD, ITU, WIPO to name just a few as well as national governments, the private sector, NGO’s and academia, have included AI-related questions on their agendas. The European Union (EU) aims to become a global leader in cutting-edge, secure, and ethical Al. With this objective in mind, the European Commission and Member States have undertaken a number of actions, including through the High Level Group of Experts on Artificial Intelligence, which has been mandated to propose ethics guidelines for trust-worthy Al. This work is about to be concluded in March 2019, which presents an excellent opportunity to discuss expected outcomes in the context of the broader policy of the European Union on Al and its contribution to global discussions on this matter. The EU delegation is organising a lunchtime discussion on Thursday, 28th February 2019 at 12:30 – 13:30, at the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations Office in Geneva.

Guest Speakers

Mr Andrea Glorioso, Senior Policy Officer in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DC CONNECT), former counsellor on digital economy at the EU Delegation to the United States of America.

Dr Katharine Höne, Senior Researcher and Lecturer at DiploFoundation and lead author of the recent report on Mapping the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence for the conduct of diplomacy, commissioned by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.