Disinformation & Misinformation Are Primary Concerns Globally: European Commission's Ursula von der Leyen

Disinformation and misinformation are the primary concerns for the global business community in the next two years, said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission while speaking at the 54th Annual Meeting of The World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.

She stressed that digital risks are serious because it is limiting "our ability to tackle the big global challenges which include, changes in our climate and our geopolitical climate, shifts in our democracy and our technology".

"Tackling the dissemination of fake digital information has been our focus since the very beginning of my mandate with our Digital Services Act," said Leyen. 

The President of the European Commission highlighted that authorities are accountable for the Internet content that is endorsed and disseminated. Their focus is to limit obscene content, protecting children and vulnerable groups from hate speech. However, it is also a responsibility of the society as a whole, she added.

Moreover, illuminating the fading distinction between the tangible and digital realm, Leyen emphasised that the demarcation between the online and offline spheres is gradually eroding over time. This emerging trend poses a significant concern in the current era of generative AI. Notably, the World Economic Forum Global Risk Report identifies artificial intelligence as one of the foremost potential risks in the coming decade.

Shifting her lens to AI Leyen said, "This is a very significant form of technology and we should use it with responsibility. Being a tech optimistic and a medical doctor, by training, I can state that AI is already revolutionising healthcare."

Additionally, applauding the AI boom, she said that the technology can boost productivity at unprecedented speed. She added AI’s early adoption is likely to reward the users in the ongoing global race and there is no doubt that our future competitiveness relies on the incorporation of AI into our daily business practices.

Europe’s AI Leap

Speaking about Europe’s lead in the realm of AI, Leyen said Europe has the potential talent and has nearly 2,00,000 software engineers in the country, a concentration which is larger in comparison to the United States and China.

Our continent is also largely competitive in edge when it comes to industrial data, she remarked.

Unveiling Europe’s AI ability, the European Commission President said "we can train artificial intelligence on data of unrivalled quality. This capability of ours is providing European startups and SMEs with world-class supercomputer access, enabling their training. This is also helping to develop and test their large AI models, which is similar to Microsoft, stressed Leyen as the company is running its chatbots on its supercomputers."

Additionally, she said the European Commission is looking forward to creating massive data space in all EU languages because non-English speakers should also harness AI.

Underlining this as a new AI frontier, the leader claimed that Europe is well-positioned to be the leader in the AI industry.