Tension between AI and personal rights a growing problem

Speaking at the Sorbonne in September 2017, French president Emmanuel Macron made clear his ambitions for Europe to become a global leader in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The European Commission is presently working on a strategy on this and is set to deliver a communication on it in the coming months. But there is much uncertainty over how ambitions such as Macron's can be attained. Much will depend on how the European Court of Justice and member states interpret a number of key provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This is the mammoth culmination of the European Union's five-year effort to make European data-protection law fit for the 21st century.