CLAIRE and euRobotics, two European non-profit organisations in the area of AI and robotics, have announced an ambitious plan to establish Europe as a powerhouse in trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) by 2030. This "moonshot" aims to "provide European citizens, industries, and public organisations with reliable and ethical AI alternatives, creating systems aligned with European values and boosting global competitiveness. The initiative calls for a pan-European effort, pooling talent and resources to overcome the current technological dependency on non-European big tech firms". According to Chair of the Board of CLAIRE directors, Holger Hoos, "Europe has a storied history of rising to technological challenges and emerging with global solutions. From CERN to the European Space Agency, we've turned collaboration into innovation. Now, as AI begins to permeate every aspect of our work and lives, it's imperative we forge our own path, ensuring the broad availability of trustworthy AI systems with European values at their core."

The EU Commission recently proposed a new set of stringent rules to regulate AI, citing an urgent need. With the global race to regulate AI officially on, the EU published a detailed proposal on how AI should be regulated, explicitly banning some uses and defining those it considers "high-risk," planning to ban the use of AI that threatens people's rights and safety. We can all agree with the sentiment of Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission executive vice president, when she said that when it comes to "artificial intelligence, trust is a must, not a nice to have," but is regulation the most effective and efficient way to secure this reality? The takeaways from the commission are incredibly in-depth, but the ones that make the most sense to me are those that stress regulated AI should aim to increase human well-being. However, regulation should not overly constrain experimentation and development of AI systems.

Just look at the reports on AI. When I asked one expert last week how many of these documents are out there, she said at least 120. The von der Leyen Commission's much anticipated White Paper dropped on February 19th. It follows the statement on AI in her own political guidelines, and the previous Commission's Communication on Artificial Intelligence for Europe from last spring. And it's accompanied by the Commission's Report on the safety and liability implications of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and robotics.

AI for Health will be the first of many meetings, as we are launching our cluster: a think tank reflecting on health, AI and its future applications. The think tank will be divided into multiple working groups tackling various topics ranging from big data, blockchain, deep learning to ethics or best practices in health.

In the race for AI dominance, the United States and China are engaged in a fierce struggle in what may be the last arms race of human civilization, but they aren't the only nations who recognize the importance of artificial intelligence as a key driver of future political clout and economic prosperity. The United Kingdom, the leading European Nation in the research and development of artificial intelligence, is making a major push to retain and expand its position as Europe's foremost artificial intelligence power.

As early Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, from machine translation to image recognition, enter our everyday lives and we begin to imagine life with autonomous vehicles and robo-advisors, Europe must act to shape its own AI future based on our shared vision. If we don't act, AI's impact on our lives, our cognitive processes, our jobs and our interpersonal and societal relations will be decided elsewhere. This is the main message of a JRC new report "Artificial Intelligence: A European perspective". It aims to take stock of the development of AI in the world today and lay out some of the options and pitfalls for EU policymakers in the face of strong competition, and competing visions, from the US and China. The report looks at recent developments in AI resulting from increased processing power, improvements in algorithms, and the exponential growth in the volume and variety of digital data.

Technology-driven hedge fund manager Winton has named its second cohort from the Winton Labs accelerator, which will pitch at a Demo Day on 9 February. The second Winton Labs programme has been run in collaboration with The Alan Turing Institute, whose academics have provided the startups with technical mentorship. Unlike other accelerators, Winton takes no equity from the companies who participate in the programme, instead offering each selected business a cash injection to help further their development, said a statement. The programme involves companies meeting potential customers and over 70 leading industry experts including, investors, advisors and members of Winton's network. It culminates with a demo day where participants are invited to present their companies to attendees, comprising some of Europe's best-known investors.