Artificial intelligence is a promising technology. It is expected to bring a variety of economic and societal benefits to a wide range of sectors, including healthcare, finance, transportation, and home affairs. Powerful machines and algorithms are already capable of diagnosing illnesses performing surgery and driving autonomous cars, these technologies provide us with new tools and disrupt the way we work yet. Human progress is being driven by artificial intelligence in countless ways, including improving health care, improving service delivery, managing energy consumption, and improving public safety. In addition, businesses use AI-based applications to optimize their operations. It is understandable that we have placed a lot of faith in these new technologies, particularly in health care and decision-making.

This is why the European Commission has proposed a set of actions to boost excellence in AI, and rules to ensure that the technology is trustworthy. The Regulation on a European Approach for Artificial Intelligence and the update of the Coordinated Plan on AI will guarantee the safety and fundamental rights of people and businesses, while strengthening investment and innovation across EU countries. Once the AI system is on the market, authorities are in charge of the market surveillance, users ensure human oversight and monitoring, while providers have a post-market monitoring system in place. Providers and users will also report serious incidents and malfunctioning. In 2018, the Commission and EU Member States took the first step by joining forces through a Coordinated Plan on AI that helped lay the ground for national strategies and policy developments.

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to systems that display intelligent behaviour by analysing their environment and taking actions – with some degree of autonomy – to achieve specific goals. Many AI approaches critically depend on the availability of data to achieve their results, or use learning methods to reach their peak performance or improve over time. Enabled by computing power, availability of data and progress in algorithms, AI is progressively turning into one of the strategic technologies of the 21st century. AI can contribute to a wide array of benefits across the entire spectrum of economic and social activities. It can help to solve complex problems and boost the green and digital transformation of businesses and societies.

There is a trade-off between technology innovation and security. The adoption of emerging technologies like 5G will fuel the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) which are often built with basic security controls, creating a larger attack surface. At the same time, reliance on data means that data breaches can cause greater damage.

The experimental use of AI spread across sectors and moved beyond the internet into the physical world. Stores used AI perceptions of shoppers' moods and interest to display personalized public ads. Schools used AI to quantify student joy and engagement in the classroom. Employers used AI to evaluate job applicants' moods and emotional reactions in automated video interviews and to monitor employees' facial expressions in customer service positions. It was a year notable for increasing criticism and governance of AI related to emotion and affect.