Most are small steps. For example, the EU plans to support a farmer-focused app store to allow farmers to browse and discover AI-powered apps, according to the draft.
For robotics and manufacturing, it plans so-called “acceleration pipelines” to speed up AI-powered robotics and manufacturing solutions. For the creative industries, it would support studios specializing in AI-enhanced production and develop a platform to utilize AI translation, making foreign-language news more widely accessible.
Some of the initiatives are more ambitious in their plans to address dependence on foreign-owned AI, for example, such as a plan to ramp up support for European artificial intelligence models for real-time understanding of the battlefield.
Top Commission officials have raised the bar for themselves ahead of the release, arguing the goal of the strategy is to plug AI into companies’ core activities — not just for support services.
“What we want to see is that companies integrate AI in their production process,” said Sioli of the Commission’s AI Office. “It’s not about having ChatGPT on your desk when you go to work, and then you tick a box that you use AI.”
“We are looking at the core processes, because the supporting processes, that’s relatively easy, already many companies have taken it up,” Małgorzata Nikowska, the AI Office’s head of unit for innovation and policy coordination, said at a hackathon organized by OpenAI and startup lobby group Allied for Startups in mid-September.
The real test of success, she said, will be whether Europe can persuade companies to redesign their production processes to use AI.