The European Commission has just granted a large research project on “Using Artificial Intelligence to Support Regulators and Policy Makers” (AI4POL). The project is coordinated at Tilburg University (led by TILEC). Other consortium members comprise TU Munich, the University of East Anglia, Visionary Analytics (Lithuania), Centerdata (NL), and University Sapienza in Rome. Here is the plan, which will start in early 2025:

AI-innovation in Europe lags behind the US and China. To catch up and ensure pro-European outcomes, AI-regulation constitutes the EU’s main channel to shape the future of AI-development globally. This project will support European regulators and policy makers with knowledge and tools to adequately address challenges and opportunities of trustworthy and ethical AI and to develop and enforce effective regulation of AI based on human rights, European values, and citizens’ needs. AI4POL will explore how regulators can use data science and AI-driven tools to improve monitoring and enforcement of regulations such as the Data Act, the Digital Markets Act, the AI Act and in consumer law. To this end, we will focus on a key innovation area, financial services, and how to increase AI-enhanced understanding and citizen feedback for the informed regulation of digital services by developing a large language model for legal jargon translation and a browser-plugin for user feedback about their understanding of laws. We will also analyze how to create and regulate trustworthy AI for financial services, for example with robo-advisors or credit scoring. Taking a long-term, geopolitical perspective, we will develop an early-warning system regarding high-risk AI in autocratic states, including the development of an AI Threat Index and dashboard and piloted with the cases of China and Russia.

AI4POL pursues these objectives with a multidisciplinary, diverse research team, combining substantive expertise in AI/data science, ethics, law, economics, and political science with project management resilience, quality assurance and timeline monitoring, and risk-based intervention plans. The consortium has extensive experience in advising policy makers and has reliable contacts to various stakeholders, evidenced by AI4POL’s Advisory Board comprising EU- and national regulators and policy makers, consumer protection agencies, civil society organizations, and AI-firms.