E-participation platforms are an important asset for governments in increasing trust and fostering democratic societies. By engaging public and private institutions and individuals, policymakers can make informed and inclusive decisions. However, current approaches of primarily static nature struggle to integrate citizen feedback effectively. Drawing on the Media Richness Theory and applying the Design Science Research method, we explore how a chatbot can address these shortcomings to improve the decision-making abilities for primary stakeholders of e-participation platforms. Leveraging the "Have Y our Say" platform, which solicits feedback on initiatives and regulations by the European Commission, a Large Language Model-based chatbot, called AskThePublic is created, providing policymakers, journalists, researchers, and interested citizens with a convenient channel to explore and engage with citizen input. Evaluating AskThePublic in 11 semi-structured interviews with public sector-affiliated experts, we find that the interviewees value the interactive and structured responses as well as enhanced language capabilities.

The president of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, has confirmed there are multiple ongoing investigations into TikTok. The probes concern the transfer of EU citizens' data to China and targeted advertising aimed at minors. Investigators are seeking to ensure that TikTok meets General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR) requirements. "The data practices of TikTok, including with respect to international data transfers, are the object of several ongoing proceedings," Ursula von der Leyden wrote in a letter shared by Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr. "This includes an investigation by the Irish [Data Protection Commission] about TikTok's compliance with several GDPR requirements, including as regards data transfers to China and the processing of data of minors, and litigation before the Dutch courts (in particular concerning targeted advertising regarding minors and data transfers to China)."

GDPR is one of the most comprehensive global data protection laws and it has claimed over $40 million in fines globally since its inception. Its success has encouraged the European Commission to introduce the idea of a similar regulation targeted towards Artificial Intelligence. This regulation will have implications for businesses that are both inside and outside of the EU that make AI available in the EU. At the time of this article, this is the first regulation targeted specifically towards AI and would have fees as large as €30 million or 6% of the company's total turnover, whichever is higher. You can find the full proposed regulation here, but we will highlight the main points.

The EU could temporarily ban the use of facial recognition technology in public places such as train stations, sport stadiums and shopping centres over fears about creeping surveillance of European citizens. A prohibition lasting between three and five years is seen as a way for Brussels to manage the risks said to be posed by the breakneck speed at which the software is being adopted. The option is contained in an early draft of a European commission white paper obtained by the news website Euractiv. The final version is due to be published in February as part of a wider overhaul of the regulation of artificial intelligence. The draft document points to the right under the General Data Protection Regulation for EU citizens "not to be subject of a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling."

HELSINKI (AP) - Finland is offering a techy Christmas gift to all European Union citizens - a free-of-charge online course in artificial intelligence in their own language, officials said Tuesday. The tech-savvy Nordic nation, led by the 34-year-old Prime Minister Sanna Marin, is marking the end of its rotating presidency of the EU at the end of the year with a highly ambitious goal. Instead of handing out the usual ties and scarves to EU officials and journalists, the Finnish government has opted to give practical understanding of AI to 1% of EU citizens, or about 5 million people, through a basic online course by the end of 2021. TOP STORIES Ricky Gervais blasts Hollywood figures as unprincipled, ignorant at Golden Globes'We'll do it for half': George Lopez doubles down on Iran's bounty on Trump Black Americans are coming home to the GOP It is teaming up with the University of Helsinki, Finland's largest and oldest academic institution, and the Finland-based tech consultancy Reaktor. Teemu Roos, a University of Helsinki associate professor in the department of computer science, described the nearly $2 million project as "a civics course in AI" to help EU citizens cope with society's ever-increasing digitalization and the possibilities AI offers in the jobs market.

As a Christmas present to the world, Finland is making its online crash course in artificial intelligence available to everyone for free. The Nordic nation launched the 6-week "Elements of AI" course last year as a means of educating their citizens on the revolutionary new technology. Since Finland will be passing on its rotating EU presidency to another member state at the end of the year, the country decided to graciously celebrate the occasion by translating the course materials into English, Swedish, Estonian, and German--as well as Finnish--and making it available for EU citizens to take (although there are no geographical limitations on who can take the course). The course, which has thus far been taken by more than 220,000 students from about 110 countries, has become the most popular course offered by the University of Helsinki. It consists of seven modules, each of which takes about 5 to 10 hours to complete.

Neuromorphic engineering, also known as neuromorphic computing,[1][2][3] is a concept developed by Carver Mead,[4] in the late 1980s, describing the use of very-large-scale integration (VLSI) systems containing electronic analog circuits to mimic neuro-biological architectures present in the nervous system.[5] In recent times, the term neuromorphic has been used to describe analog, digital, mixed-mode analog/digital VLSI, and software systems that implement models of neural systems (for perception, motor control, or multisensory integration). The implementation of neuromorphic computing on the hardware level can be realized by oxide-based memristors,[6] spintronic memories,[7] threshold switches, and transistors.[8] A key aspect of neuromorphic engineering is understanding how the morphology of individual neurons, circuits, applications, and overall architectures creates desirable computations, affects how information is represented, influences robustness to damage, incorporates learning and development, adapts to local change (plasticity), and facilitates evolutionary change. Neuromorphic engineering is an interdisciplinary subject that takes inspiration from biology, physics, mathematics, computer science, and electronic engineering to design artificial neural systems, such as vision systems, head-eye systems, auditory processors, and autonomous robots, whose physical architecture and design principles are based on those of biological nervous systems.[9]

Finland is offering a techy Christmas gift to European Union citizens -- a free-of-charge online course in artificial intelligence in their own language, officials said Tuesday. The tech-savvy Nordic nation, led by the 34-year-old Prime Minister Sanna Marin, is marking the end of its rotating presidency of the EU at the end of the year with a highly ambitious goal. Instead of handing out the usual ties and scarves to EU officials and journalists, the Finnish government has opted to give practical understanding of AI to 1% of EU citizens, or about 5 million people, through a basic online course by the end of 2021. It is teaming up with the University of Helsinki, Finland's largest and oldest academic institution, and the Finland-based tech consultancy Reaktor. Teemu Roos, a University of Helsinki associate professor in the department of computer science, described the nearly $2 million project as "a civics course in AI" to help EU citizens cope with society's ever-increasing digitalization and the possibilities AI offers in the jobs market.

Finland is offering a hi-tech Christmas gift to all European Union citizens - a free-of-charge online course in artificial intelligence, in their own language, officials said on Tuesday. The tech-savvy Nordic nation, led by the 34-year-old Prime Minister Sanna Marin, is marking the end of its rotating presidency of the EU at the end of the year with a highly ambitious goal. Instead of handing out the usual ties and scarves to EU officials and journalists, the Finnish government has opted to give practical understanding of AI to 1 percent of all EU citizens - about five million people - through a basic online course by the end of 2021. It is teaming up with the University of Helsinki, Finland's largest and oldest academic institution, and the Finland-based tech consultancy Reaktor. Teemu Roos, a University of Helsinki associate professor in the department of computer science, described the nearly $2m project as "a civics course in AI" to help EU citizens cope with society's ever-increasing digitisation and the possibilities AI offers in the jobs market.

The Nordic nation, headed by the world's youngest head of government, Sanna Marin, will mark the end of its rotating presidency of the EU with a highly ambitious goal. Finland is aiming to give practical understanding of AI to 1% of EU citizens -- or about five million people -- through a basic online course by the end of 2021. As its presidency gift to Europeans, the Finnish state provides the free online course by us and @ReaktorNow, translated to all official EU languages. It is teaming up with the University of Helsinki, Finland's largest and oldest academic institution, and the Finland-based tech consultancy Reaktor. Teemu Roos, a University of Helsinki associate professor in the department of computer science, described the near £1.5 million project as "Finland's gift to Europe" and "a civics course in AI" for every EU citizen to cope with the society's ever-increasing digitalisation and the possibilities AI offers to the job market and elsewhere.