EC wants AI to help with energy, transport, climate

London — The European Commission wants Europe to unleash the power of artificial intelligence to drive better use of energy and resources, fight climate change and tackle other social issues.

The use of AI is seen as a way to reduce costs and improve sustainability of resource consumption, contributing to the EU's economic growth by reducing inefficiencies across a wide swathe of sectors.

"AI can and should itself critically examine resource usage and energy consumption and be trained to make choices that are positive for the environment," the EC said in a white paper Wednesday.

"Europe's current and future sustainable economic growth and societal well-being increasingly draws on value created by data. AI is one of the most important applications of the data economy," the EC said.

While most data have been related to consumers, a large share of future -- and far more abundant -- data will come from industry, business and the public sector. That will open up new opportunities for the EU, which has a strong position in digitized industry and business-to-business applications, but a relatively weak position in consumer platforms, it said.

The EU also sees potential uses of AI that cut across the entire economy and public services, including reducing the costs of transport, education, energy, waste management, environmental protection and law enforcement.

"[Europe] has excellent research centers, innovative start-ups, a world-leading position in robotics and competitive manufacturing and services sectors, from automotive to healthcare, energy, financial services and agriculture," the EC said.

Europe has also developed a strong computing infrastructure, essential to the functioning of AI, it said.

"Europe also holds large volumes of public and industrial data, the potential of which is currently under-used. It has well-recognized industrial strengths in safe and secure digital systems with low-power consumption that are essential for the further development of AI," it said.

Europe also leads in neuromorphic solutions -– large scale systems of integrated circuits that mimic neuro-biological architectures present in living nervous systems.

These are "ideally suited to automating industrial processes and transport modes. They can improve energy efficiency by several orders of magnitude," the EC said.

AI can also contribute to finding solutions to some of the most pressing societal challenges, including the fight against climate change and environmental degradation, the challenges linked to sustainability and demographic changes, and the protection of Europe's democracies, the EC said in the white paper.

"Digital technologies such as AI are a critical enabler for attaining the goals of the Green Deal," it said.