India and Europe are strategic partners. The relationship today is stronger than ever. As we speak, we are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement, an Investment Agreement, and have launched a Trade and Technology Council (TTC) to put flesh on the bones of our Connectivity Partnership, so as to achieve, together, the digital transformation we need to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The EU-India TTC will be the platform for us to engage strategically on artificial intelligence, responding to geopolitical change and the challenges we face at the nexus of trade, trusted technology, and security.

The governance of responsible artificial intelligence is one of the hottest topics in contemporary institutional debate. In the past several years, digital affairs have changed the face of international relations. We are witnessing a global race for the control of strategic technologies, and every country has a strategy and a guiding policy on AI whether it be oriented around OECD, Google, IBM, Open AI principles or other frameworks. The countries leading the way in emerging technologies such as AI are widely recognised to hold the reins of the next era of global power.

But no matter how AI governance will be finally designed, the way in which it is done must be understandable to the average citizen, to businesses, and practising policy makers and regulators confronted with a plethora of initiatives at all levels. Taking AI to the next level means increasing the digital prowess of global citizens, fixing the rules for the market power of tech giants, and understanding that transparency is essential to build the path toward the responsible governance of AI.  And at a global level, it will be crucial to constantly cooperate strategically with partners within the framework of the International Digital Partnership on AI.

The purpose of my intervention at this conference will be first to advance solidarity with the practitioners of AI and the IT community in setting up constructive models for the development of responsible AI. In order to do so, I would discuss some policy and regulatory models of AI governance from a national and international perspective, highlighting similarities and differences, and identifying good practices for a responsible AI.

The second purpose will be to look outside the national boxes and see what is happening at the international level. I will present the work of G7, the group of the world’s most industrialized nations, on the Hiroshima AI, a process intended to regulate generative AI in a way that is sensitive not only to the massive opportunities AI represents, but also the risks it entails.

My third purpose will be to present the results of the EU-USA Trade and Technology Council work on AI large models – as a potential model of the best practice that could be considered by the EU-India Trade and Technology Council.