During a culminating panel at BSA | The Software Alliance’s TRANSFORM Dialogue, global leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) policy discussed the many ways in which the European Union and the United States can further transatlantic cooperation.
BSA CEO Victoria Espinel led a discussion about how economies worldwide are working toward harmonized approaches to AI regulation. The conversation featured EU Ambassador to the United States Jovita Neliupšienė and Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, Special Assistant to the President, Principal Deputy US Chief Technology Officer, and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
“It’s not only us — the EU and the US — who are interested in developing safe, trustworthy, and secure AI,” Neliupšienė said, referring to the resolution on AI adopted earlier this year by the United Nations. “I think that goes to the direction we want to travel. It actually shows how much the whole international community is [committed to] creating a general approach and a general framework.”
“We issued a recommendation to the administration that may be very proactive in reaching out to emerging economies because their perspective and their needs are so important,” Espinel said about her work with the National AI Advisory Committee. “And if they’re not included in these discussions, they’re not going to see the benefits of AI the way they should, and the other economies won’t get the benefit of their perspective.”
Both leaders emphasized how the US and EU need to come together to encourage AI research, training the future workforce, and the usage of non-personal data.
“I think it’s really exciting that the EU and the US are both focused on competitiveness and innovation and ensuring that our populations can do well from an economic perspective,” said Kornbluh. “There’s a lot of opportunity for transatlantic cooperation and cooperation with industry.”
How are global leaders looking at the deployment of AI technologies?
Neliupšienė pointed to the United Nation’s “AI Code of Conduct” as an example of a tool that countries are developing in anticipation of AI’s global impact, and Kornbluh identified AI and procurement as a way that the government could productively use AI technologies.