AI must not change our priorities: EU commissioner

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova praised opportunities promised by artificial intelligence (AI) on Wednesday but warned “it must not change priorities such as fundamental rights, freedom of expression, copyright, safety.

Jourova said AI “could serve as an inspiration and we are of course ready to support this process.”

"AI promises a lot of fantastic benefits for the people and so the regulation is the precondition to cover the risks, but the rest remains to be free for creativity and, and positive thinking," she noted during a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,

Touching on the EU's AI Act, the first regulation on artificial intelligence, Jourova said she thinks it will come into force.

"We have to guarantee that the principle values will be untouched for the human beings," she noted, noting that having the regulation also means that the EU will start "very intense" cooperation in the triangle of public sphere, the world of technologies and research.

"We need to work together to achieve sufficient level of predictability of where the technology will go further because this is what's missing," said Jourova, who is in charge of values and transparency in the Commission.

Ahead of the session, she had talked with representatives from Meta and YouTube about fighting disinformation and interference in elections and supporting independent media.

"The EU has a comprehensive rulebook to protect fundamental rights online and big tech should play by the rules," she wrote on X.