Preparing for the virtual AI revolution: EU’s flexible principles imperative

 Virtual AI assistants are poised to become virtual companions in people’s lives but legislators and regulators should adopt flexible principles to promote technological innovations while minimising risks, ensuring a favourable future for the virtual AI assistant revolution, writes Christophe Carugati.

Christophe Carugati an affiliate fellow at the think tank Bruegel, working on competition and digital issues. Bruegel’s mission is to improve the quality of economic policy with open and fact-based research, analysis and debate.

A decade ago, when Joaquin Phoenix portrayed Theodore in the science fiction movie ‘Her,’ his character developed a deep connection with a virtual AI assistant, ‘Samantha’. Today, with remarkable advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), the fiction is becoming real. (...)