This transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.

Mr President, good morning again.

We are very pleased to have now with us Executive Vice President Vermooten to present the AI package, which was discussed yesterday at the meeting of

the College of Commissioners and finalized this morning in written procedure,

so the documents should also be on the way very, very soon, if not already out.

EVP Vierkorn, thank you for being with us. Please, the floor is yours. Good morning, dear audience.

Colleagues have approved two important new plans to apply AI strategy and the AI in science strategy.

These strategies, they are another clear step towards our vision, making Europe a true AI continent.

The Apply AI strategy is our plan to integrate artificial intelligence into our key industries,

and our goal is very simple here to spark innovation and make our businesses more competitive around the world.

For companies, AI means huge jumps in productivity, also better opportunities for operations, lower costs and also major innovation, and for the public sector,

we see that AI helps to offer new and better services

for our citizens and it also supports evidence based policy making.

However, in last year,

only 13 of European businesses were using AI and there were also huge differences among Member States.

But the good news is that in Europe we have very strong advantages in AI adoption because,

firstly, our companies lead the global market in industrial automatization. A critical foundation for industrial AI.

And secondly, we have a very vibrant ecosystem of startups driving innovations,

both in the development of frontier AI models and in their applications across sectors,

from healthcare and energy to robotics and defense.

And thirdly, our computing infrastructure is growing now very, very fast.

We have been building 1313 AI factories and we are

recently launching a call for interest for new AI gigafactories.

The call received investment interest for over €200 billion and this very

clearly shows a very strong commitment to investing in AI across Europe.

The strategy takes a sector by sector approach here.

It focuses on the specific needs of industries and the public sector,

making sure our policies are targeted and effective.

We are setting an AI first policy here.

We encourage companies and the public sector to always first consider AI solutions when making strategic decisions.

Naturally, this requires careful consideration of opportunities and also risks.

We are also setting up flagship actions to show AI's powerful potential.

Here we have identified 11 sectors, and let me share some examples of them.

In healthcare, we will create a network of AI powered advanced screening to speed

up AI powered diagnosis making in hospitals and also bringing services to remote areas.

In mobility, AI helps to scale up fully autonomous driving cars.

In robotics, we will connect developers with user industries to

speed up the creation of European solutions that meet market needs.

For the public sector, we are developing an AI toolbox, a collection of practical,

open source reusable tools to help public administrations to take up AI solutions.

The strategy also encourages a by European AI approach, especially for the public sector.

We will focus on European open source AI solutions.

To support all this, we are boosting our European digital innovation hubs to act as AI experience centers where businesses can test and integrate AI solutions,

and these hubs will also facilitate access to EU infrastructure, such as the AI factories, and this is,

of course, very important for our SMEs to have that kind of support on the ground.

We are also launching a European Frontier AI initiative to speed up progress in very advanced AI,

including major EU wide competitions to develop frontier AI models.

And finally, the strategy also helps workers by supporting AI literacy training across all sectors.

In parallel, we will also actively monitor the impact of AI on the labor market.

To coordinate this work, we are launching the Apply AI Alliance,

bringing together policymakers and industry leaders.

To strengthen trust, the Commission is launching the AI Act Service Desk, and this desk provides all information on the AI Act,

our single rulebook for AI, and I want also to highlight the compliance checker.

It will help businesses understand their legal duties.

Now let me turn to the 2nd new plan,

the European Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in Science.

It reflects the CERN of AI approach announced by President von der Leyen in February.

Just as we want industry to use AI,

we must also focus on research for AI and using AI in European science across all fields.

To support this, we will launch the pilot of the Resource for AI Science in Europe, RICE.

RICE will bring together strategic resources, funding, computing power, data and talent.

To push the boundaries of AI technology and achieve scientific breakthroughs.

This race will operate along two main pillars.

Science for AI is supporting basic research to advance core AI capabilities, in particular, safe and secure frontier AI,

and AI in science is promoting the use of AI for progress in different scientific fields.

We are also investing heavily in attracting and keeping world class AI and scientific talent in Europe.

So, dear audience, today's package is another vital step in making Europe a true AI continent.

Thank you for your attention, and now I'm ready to take your questions if you have any.