TOWARDS EUROPE’S AI STRATEGY: DESIRES & REALITIES

Artificial Intelligence is possibly the most talked about topic among all emerging and disruptive technologies. Being under continuous development for the last 60 years or more, AI promises to provide benefits within a number of domains, including healthcare, finance security and energy, to name only a few. In this paper, we explore stakeholder perceptions with regards to the forthcoming European AI Strategy, as expressed during the European Commission’s formal consultation process. We follow a qualitative inquiry to analyse our data and identify emerging themes. Our findings reveal six dimensions that are considered crucial for a responsible and ethical AI strategy: ecosystems; education; liability & accountability; data availability, data sufficiency & protection; and governance. We elaborate on these dimensions and develop a desires-realities framework. Our work contributes to a better understanding of stakeholder expectations from the AI strategy and holds important implications for research on addressing grey areas and overcoming the realities in the AI domain