THE European Union and the USA announced today a plan to draft an audience “code of ethics” on artificial intelligence (AI), which will be open to all democracies and applied voluntarily in this area, at a time when the major powers are considering the introduction of regulatory rules.

“In the coming weeks we will present the draft code of ethics for artificial intelligence,” said the Competition Commissioner Marget Vestager, at a press conference he gave in Sweden together with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

The goal is “to define voluntary rules that will be open to all countries that share the same values”, the latter clarified. Basic idea is to present “very, very soon” a definite proposition upon which “they could commit voluntarily” the American giants of the field, such as Microsoft, Meta and Google, Vestager explained.

The topic of artificial intelligence was one of the main topics during the meeting of the Council of Commerce and Technology (CCT) held in the northern Swedish city of Luleå. The creator of the revolutionary ChatGPT bot, Sam Altman, was also present.

The CCT, in which the US and the EU participate, was established in 2021 with the aim of turning the page on the two sides “trade turbulence” of the Trump presidency.

“The EU and the US share the common view that AI technologies offer great opportunities but also present risks for our society,” they said in their final announcement.

The EU wants to be the first in the world to have a full and mandatory legislative framework to limit the risks of artificial intelligence, but it will not be in place until the end of 2025. China also has some plans to implement a regulatory framework to oversee the safety of artificial intelligence tools. In Washington, despite much discussion, there is currently no mandatory framework on the table.

Americans and Europeans fear that if the West does not come together in time, Chinese standards will prevail.