The European Union and the United States will announce cooperation on AI at Friday's EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC) meeting, according to a senior European Commission official briefing reporters ahead of the meeting.
This mood music comes as major US companies like OpenAI continue to have a highly polarized commercial picture in terms of developing strategies to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by powerful AI technologies. , indicating growing cooperation between lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic. It dominates cutting-edge AI development.
The TTC was established several years ago after the Trump administration to provide a forum for EU and US lawmakers to discuss transatlantic cooperation on trade and technology policy issues. Friday's meeting will be the forum's sixth since it began operations in 2021, and the last before elections in both regions. With the prospect of a second Trump presidency derailing future EU-US cooperation, lawmakers may now be focusing their attention on maximizing opportunities for collaboration.
“At TTC, the AI Office and [US] AI Safety Association,” a senior European Commission official said, referring to the EU supervisory body being set up as part of the next EU AI law, a comprehensive risk-based framework for regulating AI apps. It is scheduled to start applying across the EU. Block later this year.
While this element of the upcoming agreement appears to focus on AI safety or oversight, it also calls for “cooperation or dialogue” between the EU and US' respective AI watchdogs to strengthen the implementation of regulatory powers over AI. ”. Official.
They said the second focus area of the expected EU-US AI agreement would be on standardization. This will take the form of a collaborative effort aimed at developing standards that can support development by establishing an “AI roadmap”.
The EU-US partnership will also include a third element: AI for the public good. The commission said it was about collaboration on promoting research activities, but focused on the adoption of AI technologies in developing countries and the Global South.
The official suggested there is a common view that AI technology can bring “highly quantifiable” benefits to developing regions in areas such as healthcare, agriculture and energy. This is therefore also an area of focus for transatlantic cooperation to accelerate the adoption of AI in the short term.
Does “AI” mean alignment of interests?
As the EU says, AI is no longer considered a trade issue by the US. “Through the TTC, we were able to explain our policy and show the American people that we actually have the same goals,” a committee official suggested. “Through the AI Act and [AI safety- and security-focused] Executive Order — De-risks AI technologies while supporting their adoption into our economy. ”
Earlier this week, the US and UK signed a partnership agreement on AI safety. Cooperation between the EU and the US is likely to be broader, as it will cover common safety and standardization goals, as well as joint support for “public goods” research.
European Commission officials have indicated that further areas for cooperation on emerging technologies will be announced on Friday, including standardization work in the field of electronic identity (the EU has been developing an e-ID proposal for several years). hinted at. “Electronic identity is a very strong area of cooperation with a lot of potential,” they said, insisting that the US is interested in the “huge new business opportunities” created by the EU's electronic identity wallet. did.
The official also signaled a growing agreement between the EU and the US on how to deal with platform power. This is another area where the EU has targeted legislation in recent years. “We found a lot of common ground. [between EU laws like the DMA, aka Digital Markets Act] Antitrust lawsuits have recently been filed in the United States as well,” the official said. “I think there’s no question that there are win-win opportunities in many of these areas.”
Meanwhile, the US-UK AI Memorandum signed by US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and UK Secretary of State for Technology Michelle Donnellan in Washington on Monday states that the two countries will accelerate collaboration on a range of AI safety issues, including: It is stated that the aim is to Not only in national security, but also in the area of AI safety concerns in broader society.
The U.K.-U.K. agreement includes at least one joint test of publicly accessible AI models, the U.K. Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said in a press release. He also hinted at the possibility of personnel exchanges between the two countries' respective AI safety agencies to share expertise.
The US-UK agreement envisages broader information sharing on “capabilities and risks” associated with AI models and systems, and “fundamental technology research on AI safety and security.” “This will work to support a common approach to AI safety testing, allowing researchers on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world to unite around a common scientific foundation.” DSIT The advertisement continued.
Last summer, ahead of a global AI summit, the UK government received “early or priority access” from US AI giants Anthropic, DeepMind and OpenAI to their AI models to support evaluation and safety research. The company announced that it had received a promise to provide “. It also announced plans to spend £100m on an AI safety task force, saying it would focus on so-called foundational AI models.
At the UK AI Summit last November, Raimondo announced the establishment of the US Institute for AI Safety in response to a US executive order on AI. She said the new agency will be established within her department under the National Institute of Standards and Technology and will aim to work closely with other AI safety groups established by other governments.
Neither the US nor the UK have yet proposed comprehensive legislation on AI safety. The EU remains ahead of the curve when it comes to AI safety legislation. But it seems only natural that more cross-border collaborations will occur.