Tencent executive urges Europe to focus on ethical uses of artificial intelligence

Tencent
Tencent is one of China's biggest tech companies and is increasingly pouring investment into AI Credit: Kim Kyung Hoon/Reuters

Chinese tech giant Tencent has urged European companies to focus on ethical applications of artificial intelligence, leaving higher-risk ventures to the US and China.

Speaking at a conference in Helsinki, Finland, David Wallerstein, Tencent's chief exploration officer, said he was encouraging the European Union to "embrace AI and deploy it in the areas that would have a maximum benefit for human life, even if that technology isn't competitive to take on an American or Chinese market".

"By the time you get better at AI in Europe, the planet will have 8.5 billion people and most of the additional billion will be in the developing world. Energy is an area where there's a huge opportunity on the planet, and it's a huge opportunity for Europe.

"I've heard lots of people saying how do we catch up with China and the US in the next 15 years, but we may not have much of a planet left by then," he said.

The comments give an insight into Tencent’s thinking on where the EU fits in the race for artificial intelligence, suggesting the bloc focuses on applications that China and the US are dedicating less time to, and perhaps less controversial uses of the technology. 

China and the US are widely considered to be paving the way when it comes to AI research, thanks to heavy public and private investment in the area, as well as the vast pools of data held by the tech giants based in the countries. 

Although Europe is home to some of the leading universities for studying AI, top researchers are increasingly being lured overseas by big salaries and the chance to work for one of the tech giants.

Data compiled by The Daily Telegraph earlier this year found that a third of the leading machine learning and AI specialists who studied at the UK’s top institutions are now working in Silicon Valley.

Concerns over a “brain drain” prompted the European Union to announce it would be increasing its investment in artificial intelligence by around 70pc to €1.5bn (£1.3bn), and it has also suggested new legislation be introduced to make more public sector data available.

However, some have warned that its heavier hand on regulation, compared to places such as China, could slow down the pace of innovation in Europe, at least in the short term.

For example, in China, facial recognition technology has been introduced in a number of places, but privacy rules in Europe mean there are a number of additional requirements on any companies looking to roll out the same technology here.  

US think-tank Brookings warned that, through GDPR "and other data protection actions, the European Union is putting its manufacturers and software designers at a significant disadvantage to the rest of the world" when it comes to AI development. 

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