Back in 2012, the EU began drafting regulations with regard to the use of private information for its citizens by corporations. But, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has one big problem: they didn't really have the foresight to address the issue of how companies use algorithms to process personal information into deep learning. So, these already antiquated regulations have left some wondering if the EU has set the stage to ban the use of AI as it is currently utilized.
There have been some suggestions on how to alter the algorithms to "forget" personally identifiable information to be compliant with GDPR, but that may be jumping the gun a little bit, as all of the suggestions will involve substantial time, effort and incur costs. In 2016, though, it was concluded by the that "While it is too soon to set down sector-wide regulations for this nascent field, it is vital that careful scrutiny of the ethical, legal and societal dimensions of artificially intelligent systems begins now. Not only would this help to ensure that the UK remains focused on developing 'socially beneficial' AI systems, it would also represent an important step towards fostering public dialogue about, and trust in, such systems over time." Additionally, the committee recommended that a "Commission on Artificial Intelligence" be established and that the commission be based at the Alan Turing Institute.
So, while there are some glaringly obvious contradictions in terms of the official stance of the EU government of using personal data in AI learning, it doesn't seem like there should be cause for alarm just yet. Compliance with the GDPR is on the mind of every business in the EU and member states that are affected by these regulations (since the deadline for complete compliance is in just a few weeks), but it doesn't necessarily mean that the EU is going to stifle the development of AI applications in corporate environments.