Artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to play a major role in shaping global competitiveness and productivity over the next couple of decades, granting early adopters significant societal, economic, and strategic advantages. As the pace of AI innovation and development picks up--underpinned by advancements in big data and high-performance computing--the United States and China are both in the driver's seat.

The Digital Single strategy of the European Commission sets out to "open up digital opportunities for people and business and enhance Europe's position as a world leader in the digital economy."(1) This article will briefly examine a part of that by looking at the work of the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (Unit A.1). We know that the Unit sets out to push forward the development of a competitive industry in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) throughout Europe. Certainly, this includes industrial and service robots plus the growing field of autonomous systems from drones and driverless vehicles to computing and cognitive vision. Also, the Unit encourages the wide uptake and best use of robotics and AI in all societal and industrial fields.

Since the first version of this white paper in 2016, the range and impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has expanded at a dizzying pace as the area continues to capture an ever greater share of the business and popular imaginations. Along with the cloud, AI is emerging as the key driver of the'fourth industrial revolution', the term (after steam, electricity and computing) coined by Davos founder Klaus Schwab for the deep digital transformation now under way. This white paper is written from the perspective of the in-house lawyer working on the legal aspects of their organisation's adoption and use of AI. "artificial intelligence is that activity devoted to making machines intelligent, and intelligence is that quality that enables an entity to function appropriately and with foresight in its environment".4 "interdisciplinary field ... dealing with models and systems for the performance of functions generally associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning and learning." Most recently, in its January 2018 book, 'The Future: Computed', Microsoft thinks of AI as: "a set of technologies that enable computers to perceive, learn, reason and assist in decision- making to solve problems in ways that are similar to what people do."7

Today, the European Commission hosted a high-level meeting with 12 representatives from philosophical and non-confessional organisations from across Europe, as part of the regular dialogue with churches, religions, philosophical and non-confessional organisations foreseen by Article 17 of the Lisbon Treaty. This ninth annual high-level meeting discussed the topic "Artificial Intelligence: addressing ethical and social challenges". First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, responsible for the Article 17 Dialogue said: "Our societies are in the midst of an unprecedented digital revolution which will impact every person living on the planet. This revolution brings new promises, and new risks of disruption. We have seen recently that the digital world moved faster than the ethical discussion about what could and should be allowed online. We need to be in control of this transformation, and make sure that it is used to foster our values and defend our social model".