European Commission Announces New Package of AI Measures

On January 24, 2024, the European Commission (“Commission”) announced that, following the political agreement reached in December 2023 on the EU AI Act (“AI Act”) (see our previous blog here), the Commission intends to proceed with a package of measures (“AI Innovation Strategy”) to support AI startups and small and medium-size enterprises (“SMEs”) in the EU.

Alongside these measures, the Commission also announced the creation of the European AI Office (“AI Office”), which is due to begin formal operations on February 21, 2024.

This blog post provides a high-level summary of these two announcements, in addition to some takeaways to bear in mind as we draw closer to the adoption of the AI Act.

The AI Innovation Strategy

The Commission intends for the AI Innovation Strategy to help the EU “fulfil [its] potential of becoming a global frontrunner in trustworthy advanced AI models, systems and applications”.  As such, the Commission has committed to delivering the following measures:

• AI Factories.  The Commission intends to create “AI Factories” across the EU, which will bring together supercomputing infrastructure and human resources to further develop AI models and applications.

• Common European Data Spaces.  The Commission will continue efforts to make data available through the development of “Common European Data Spaces“, with the goal of improving the availability of and access to high-quality data for start-ups and innovation communities to train their AI systems, models and applications.

• GenAI4EU.  The “GenAI4EU” initiative aims to support the development of novel use cases in a number of industrial sectors including robotics, health, and manufacturing.

• Investment.  The AI Innovation Strategy includes an overall public and private investment package of around €4 billion through 2027 dedicated to generative AI.

The AI Office

The AI Office will begin formal operations on February 21, 2024. The AI Office is a centralized EU agency within the European Commission that will support the implementation and enforcement of the AI Act in collaboration with the Commission and EU Member States’ national competent authorities.

Specifically, the AI Office’s mandate is to: (i) ensure the uniform implementation and enforcement of the AI Act, particularly in relation to general-purpose AI (“GPAI”) models; (ii) support and monitor the development of AI markets and policies across the EU; and (iii) develop and coordinate collaboration and cooperation initiatives within and outside the EU. The AI Office will assist the Commission in preparing both enforcement decisions and codes of practice to support the application of the AI Act. 

The Commission has separately announced that enforcement of the rules on GPAI models will begin in May 2025; thus, interested parties should watch out for codes of practice, and opportunities to participate in consultations, that might inform their efforts to prepare for the AI Act over the next 15 months.

Takeaways

Both of these announcements underline the EU’s commitment to invest in European AI-related infrastructure, and to produce a comprehensive regulatory framework for AI prior to other jurisdictions, such as the UK and USA.

In the meantime, the AI Act is steadily progressing to adoption. On February 13, 2024, the Joint Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection and Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the AI Act, with a large majority. The final step in the legislative process is for the AI Act to be formally adopted at the European Parliament’s plenary session, taking place in April 2024, following which it will be published in the EU’s Official Journal.

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The Covington team has deep experience advising clients on European data-related and privacy regulations, including on the AI Act, and is closely monitoring any development in relation to the AI Act and Member States initiatives on AI. If you have any questions on how the AI Act and other upcoming EU legislation and initiatives will affect your business, our team is happy to assist.