Europe must act more rapidly in implementing artificial intelligence (AI), as it's likely to become a general-purpose technology that will accelerate productivity even faster than electricity or personal computers, European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde stated in her address at a high-level summit on AI during the BratislavAI Forum at Bratislava Castle on Monday (24 November).
Lagarde warned that Europe can't afford to miss the next digital wave. The rapid implementation of AI within the economy while building dedicated digital infrastructure, including data centres, must be a priority. However, if old problems such as fragmented capital markets or high energy prices still persist, the expansion of AI will slow down, said the ECB president.
On Monday, Lagarde also met NBS governor Peter Kažimír, who stressed that the risk of AI isn't in that it will fail to deliver growth, but that only a very narrow a group of people will profit from it.
"Our urgent task is to invest in skills and education massively right now so that this revolution will become a path to shared, inclusive prosperity, rather than prosperity just for a select few," warned Kažimír.
The BratislavAI Forum has been organised by the Education Ministry in cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It brought together leaders from the UN, OECD, UNESCO, government, technology companies and academia.
Source: TASR
