Euronews AI Summit aims to find answers to AI governance dilemmas

The rise of artificial intelligence and its ever-increasing presence in our daily lives has sparked what has been dubbed one of the most important conversations of the year.

In parallel, the question of its governance has emerged as one of the most pressing issues of our time, with Brussels at the forefront of the race to regulate AI with its flagship AI Act. 

Meanwhile, other major players, including the US and China, are debating their own controls. Yet, discussions continue on how to best regulate AI’s development and use without compromising its growth – or our own future. 

This is why Euronews and Forum Europe are organising a summit on 8 November curated by Cameron Kerry and Joshua Meltzer of The Brookings Institution and Andrea Renda of the Centre for European Policy Studies – founders of the Forum for Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence – in search for answers to many of the questions around global regulatory cooperation, and what it will mean in practice.

The one-day event in Brussels will host experts, leaders and decision-makers to discuss, debate, and find solutions to how to: cement international collaboration, including the role of standards, common principles, accountability and oversight; build responsible AI, factoring in ethics and human rights; and prioritise cooperation on research and development in areas of most benefit.

The International Artificial Intelligence Summit 2023 will feature keynote interviews with First Deputy Prime Minister of Spain and Minister for Economy and Digitalization Nadia Calviño and Ireland’s Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney, as well as industry roundtables, panel discussions, and expert conversations, and a closing keynote speech by European Commission Vice-President Věra Jourová.

We are in this race together

As its development continues to build at speed, and in the wake of the rapid advances in generative AI, governments are racing to adopt national policies and develop global regulatory cooperation.

While jurisdictions will necessarily develop differing approaches at varying speeds, international regulatory cohesion could bring more positive outcomes, particularly where there is close cooperation between policymakers, industry, civil society, and other stakeholders.

Several initiatives promoting international cooperation are underway: the OECD has been active for some time; the G7, G20, and UN have all adopted broad principles and new initiatives, such as the G7’s recent “Hiroshima AI process” to regulate generative AI, have been launched. 

Cooperation between like-minded partners is also ramping up in various bilateral and multilateral forums, with the EU and the US notably working on voluntary codes of conduct and other mechanisms designed to avoid divergence and foster responsible, human-centric AI. 

Meanwhile, the EU is finalising the first comprehensive regulatory scheme for AI. The extent to which major players who are also looking at regulating the technology but do not share similar political and social values and see AI as an instrument of geopolitical competition will be included in these discussions will shape the scope and potential for global AI governance.

As the debates around AI regulation come to a crucial stage, the hope is that together we can find the answers to the hottest topic of the year that will affect our lives and our future for good.