Trans-Atlantic Digital Political Push Sought on AI, Privacy

There's "strong urgency" to boost trans-Atlantic cooperation on issues such as AI, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., told a DigitalEurope webinar Thursday. The two regions share a growing set of challenges on such issues as privacy, AI and content moderation, and they should look to how the other side is handling them, because rapidly developing technology needs guardrails and there's fierce competition from ideological rivals, he said. Identify where they differ to develop the right set of rules, said McNerney, who chairs the Artificial Intelligence Caucus. Panelists agreed interest is growing at higher levels in finding common ground.

European industry wants more dialogue between the EU and U.S., said DigitalEurope Director General Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl. The European Commission, which has been in talks with the U.S. on AI for a long time, has seen increased interest from it, said Lucilla Sioli, EC Communications Networks, Content and Technology Directorate-General director-AI and digital industry. The EC hopes that with a new administration in place, talks can restart, including on a joint communication on AI standards, she said.

The June 15 EU-U.S. summit will be "key" in launching better cooperation on tech issues, said Atlantic Council Distinguished Fellow Frances Burwell. She said she's not expecting any major developments then, but it's an opportunity to approach the issues at a high level. Three potential areas of cooperation could be AI, resilient infrastructure and content moderation, she said. Challenges to collaboration are digital taxes, data flows and that the EU is steaming ahead with an ambitious digital legislative agenda, but the Biden administration isn't yet as organized, she said. McNerney agreed the U.S. needs to catch up, suggesting it focus first on cooperating on standards.

Although the EC AI proposal will take several years to navigate the legislative process, there are some issues stakeholders could begin to address now, panelists said. One is whether the proposed risk-based approach to AI applications (see 2104210003) appropriately defines risk categories, said Workday Managing Director-Public Policy Jason Albert. Asked how there can be mutual recognition of AI rules given that hasn't worked for data protection, McNerney said cooperation must come from the highest political levels and legislatures. Potential issues for collaboration are so global that cooperation is inevitable, he said: Progress will happen, but there must be resources and incentives to ensure it does so smoothly and transparently. There's goodwill to approach issues like AI not as a trans-Atlantic competition but cooperatively, Burwell said. The need now is to "focus on the nitty-gritty" to better understand each other's perspective on issues such as digital taxes and to build research partnerships, she said: None of this will happen without top-level pressure.

The EC launched talks with Japan and other countries on AI, and hopes to do so with the U.S., Margrethe Vestager, Europe Fit for the Digital Age executive vice-president, told the European Parliament Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age and Internal Market and Consumer Protection committees: The point is "to push for real global standards." Lawmakers said they generally support the proposal but have concerns about whether it will be effectively harmonized among EU countries, whether it goes far enough to safeguard consumers, and whether its risk categories could hamper innovation.