Good afternoon and welcome to this hearing convened by the European Political Strategy Centre on a European Union Strategy for Artificial Intelligence. My name is Ann Mettler and I'm the Head of the European Political Strategy Centre, the EPSC, which is the European Commission's in-house think tank. I'm joined on my left by Mario Mariniello, Digital Adviser at the EPSC. This hearing is organised in order to contribute to the European Commission's internal reflection on Artificial Intelligence. There will be a communication on Artificial Intelligence, which will be published in April, and it will also be among the topics that EU leaders will discuss at an informal summit in Sofia, Bulgaria, in May.