EU – Rules on algorithms could harm Europe

EU – Rules on algorithms could harm Europe

San Francisco, 6.6.2021

The European Union’s proposed rules to make algorithms more transparent could hurt Europe, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has warned.

Speaking yesterday at Politico’s AI Summit, Schmidt said a provision in the EU’s draft AI law would require AI/ML systems to declare themselves.

But, he said, those systems still aren’t able to fully explain how they make their decisions.

„It’s only a proposal, but if you were to adopt it without changes, it would be a very big setback for Europe,“ he told the audience.

Schmidt also expressed concern that the EU published the proposed rules before it became a partner with the United States. This was a „mistake,“ he argued, because an alliance would help the Western world compete better against China.

The European Commission first published its proposed rules on artificial intelligence (proposed rules ) in mid-April; they seek to ban „social scoring“ systems and restrict how police can use facial recognition, among other measures.