EU Artificial intelligence ambition – Stronger governance and increased, more focused investment essential going forward

Summary:

Embracing AI technology will likely determine the path of the EU’s future economic development. In 2018, the Commission adopted a coordinated plan with the member states to scale up investment in artificial intelligence and adapt the regulatory environment, which was updated in 2021. We assessed whether the Commission’s implementation of the framework was being effective. We found that the Commission’s actions covered key dimensions that are important for the development of an EU ecosystem for artificial intelligence. However, the multiple actions (many of which are still ongoing) had a limited effect in developing the EU AI ecosystem by the time of the audit and did not accelerate AI investment in line with global leaders. The Commission and national measures were not effectively coordinated, as the Commission lacked the necessary governance tools and information. We recommend that the Commission re-assess the EU investment target for AI and how member states might contribute to it, evaluate the need for a more AI-focused capital support instrument, reinforce coordination and monitoring, and steps up support for the exploitation of results in the EU.

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