https://phys.org/news/2018-12-smart-growth-artificial-intelligence.html

"Given the widespread interest in AI and the eagerness to develop applications that affect people in their daily lives, it is important that the research and application development community engages in open discussions to avoid unrealistic expectations, unintended consequences, and usage that causes negative side effects or human suffering," said Luc Steels, Ph.D., ICREA Research Professor, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) - IBE (UPF/CSIC), Barcelona, who with his co-investigator Ramon Lopez de Mantaras, Ph.D., Research Professor of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Director of the Instituto de Investigación en Inteligencia Artificial (IIIA) - CSIC, Bellaterra, Barcelona, organized the Barcelona event.

While most AI activity is in the US and China, recent actions by the European Commission and national governments indicate that research and development are ramping up in Europe, growth that the discourse around the Declaration is helping to shape. A promising development was the recent allocation within the European H2020 framework program for the creation of an ecosystem and platform to stimulate European AI research, as called for in the Declaration. The paper renews its appeal to European funding agencies and companies to invest in the development of AI at a scale that is adequate for the challenge, and in such a way that all European regions and citizens can profit.