EUR-Lex Access to European Union law
This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website
Artificial intelligence (AI) is technology that displays human-like behaviour. It involves software that uses machine learning, and other tools, to process information from large amounts of data using sensors, digital data or other inputs to generate behaviour based on models built using those data. This software allows machines to take decisions that would normally be taken by humans.
In response to the European Union (EU) leaders’ call for an EU approach to AI, the European Commission, in 2018, put forward an approach to make the most out of the opportunities offered by AI, while addressing the new challenges it brings. This EU-wide approach had three aims:
This was followed, in 2021, by a more comprehensive package on AI involving:
Further legislative proposals are planned. These will seek to revise some of the EU’s sectoral safety legislation (e.g. on machinery and on general product safety) and address liability issues related to new technologies.
By means of the Digital Europe and Horizon Europe programmes, the Commission plans to invest €1 billion per year in AI. It will mobilise additional investments from the private sector and the Member States in order to reach an annual investment volume of €20 billion over the course of the next decade.
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