Europe’s New Guard Versus Robots

Follow Us Get the newsletter Hi everyone, it's Nat in Brussels. The EU is reining in the robots. The incoming European Commission, the bloc's executive body, is giving itself 100 days to propose new rules for the ethical development of artificial intelligence in an effort to catch up to the U.S. and China. Following hearings in the European Parliament starting this week the new industry commissioner Sylvie Goulard, and Margrethe Vestager, nominated to be executive vice president for digital affairs, must race to come up with draft legislation to provide regulatory clarity, inspire trust and incentivize investment. Good luck! The approach will involve extending consumer product safety and liability legislation to digital assistants and other smart products, Vestager said in written responses to European lawmakers last week. That could mean users will have to be fully informed about any risks the products present -- something that wasn't always the case in the past. Companies may also be required to be transparent about whether customers are communicating with a human or a robot, according to an EU official. Regulators say their approach will give the EU a competitive advantage as users are increasingly concerned about how companies use their data. More importantly, it would force American and Chinese firms to play by the European rulebook if they want to access the bloc's 500 million consumers. Translation: it would slow them down. "No one can ignore Europe as one of the largest markets in the world," Goulard said in written responses to lawmakers last week. "Global firms will have to adapt their products and services to Europe's rules." Hey, it worked with the GDPR. Speaking of GDPR, any new rules will have to avoid contradicting the many existing digital laws that govern companies' use of data.  That's precisely why some EU officials were surprised when incoming commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced plans to present new AI legislation so quickly. The new guard is moving fast. Let's see if it breaks anything. —Natalia Drozdiak And here's what you need to know in global technology news: Nothing is Forever. Fashion merchant Forever 21 Inc. is the latest retailer to file for bankruptcy as the shift to e-commerce cuts a swathe through traditional merchants. British Backdoors. Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms will be forced to share users' encrypted messages with U.K. police. WeWork was a family affair -- until it got complicated. Sponsored Content by Lacework Containers across cloud environments like AWS, Azure, GCP enable agile deployment capabilities but has also created security challenges at the same time. Learn how to identify vulnerabilities & misconfigurations for effective container security in a cloud environment.     Like Bloomberg's Fully Charged? Subscribe for unlimited access to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more.   You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Fully Charged newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022