The US and the EU on Friday announced an agreement to enhance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve agriculture, healthcare, emergency response, climate forecasting and electricity grids.
A senior US administration official, discussing the initiative shortly before the official announcement, called it the first sweeping AI agreement between the US and Europe. Previously, agreements on the issue had been limited to specific areas such as enhancing privacy, the official said.
AI modeling, which refers to machine-learning algorithms that use data to make logical decisions, could be used to improve the speed and efficiency of government operations and services.
Photo: AFP
“The magic here is in building joint models [while] leaving data where it is,” the official said. “The US data stays in the US and European data stays there, but we can build a model that talks to the European and the US data, because the more data and the more diverse data, the better the model.”
The initiative should provide governments greater access to more detailed and data-rich AI models, leading to more efficient emergency responses and electricity grid management, along with other benefits, the official said.
Regarding power grids, the US collects data on how electricity is being used, where it is generated and how to balance a grid’s load so that weather changes do not knock it offline, the official said.
Many European countries have similar data points they gather relating to their own grids, the official said.
Under the new partnership, all of that data would be harnessed into a common AI model to produce better results for emergency managers, grid operators and others relying on AI to improve systems.
Meanwhile, Sciences Po, one of France’s top universities, has banned the use of ChatGPT, an AI-based chatbot that can generate coherent prose, to prevent fraud and plagiarism.
ChatGPT is a free program that generates original text about virtually any subject in response to a prompt, including articles, essays, jokes and poetry, raising concerns across industries about plagiarism.
The university said on Friday the school had e-mailed all students and faculty announcing a ban on ChatGPT and all other AI-based tools.
“Without transparent referencing, students are forbidden to use the software for the production of any written work or presentations, except for specific course purposes, with the supervision of a course leader,” Sciences Po said, without specifying how it would track usage.
ChatGPT has been banned in some public schools in New York City and Seattle, US media have reported, while several US universities have announced plans to assign fewer take-home projects and assign more hand-written essays and oral exams.
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