The “Mapping ERC Frontier Research Artificial Intelligence” report delves into ERC-funded AI projects, their societal impacts, and policy implications.
In the context of the rapid acceleration of progress in AI, and the just recently released AI guidelines (see SwissCore article), the ERC has published a report reiterating the EU’s commitment to providing frontier knowledge and innovation that are key to addressing transversal societal challenges and informing EU policy objectives. The report notably sheds light on the trajectory of artificial intelligence (AI) development, its applications across various domains, and the ethical considerations and policy implications inherent in this rapidly developing field. Central to the ERC’s mission is the encouragement of the highest quality research in Europe by supporting investigator-driven frontier research through competitive funding, based on scientific excellence, enabling grantees to pursue ambitious projects that push the boundaries of knowledge. Through its funding mechanism, the ERC provides researchers with the capacity to explore AI’s potential across diverse scientific domains without predefined academic or policy priorities.
The document presents the findings of an analysis of 1’048 ERC-funded projects and outlines the ERC’s significant investment in AI research since its inception in 2007. With over €2 billion allocated to frontier research on AI during the period studied, the ERC has propelled significant investigations into the development of AI technology and systems. The report identifies a substantial number of ERC-funded AI projects focused on health and green transition, spanning research in clinical practice, automation of diagnostics, biomedical research, and climate action. These AI projects represent around 7% of all projects funded by the ERC, with the proportion of AI projects relative to total ERC projects steadily increasing over the years, reaching almost 15% in 2021.
Structured into four main sections, the report offers an overview of ERC-funded AI research. The first section, pertaining to ERC frontier research on AI, delves into the ethical, legal, and social dimensions of AI research. It highlights the ERC’s role in funding projects that address pressing ethical questions surrounding the development and use of AI. The ERC stresses the importance of integrating ethical principles early in the development process of AI applications with a focus on safeguarding data subjects’ rights and ensuring transparency and accountability in AI practices.
In the subsequent section, the report provides insights into the diverse and impactful research endeavours funded by the ERC that align closely with key EU policy objectives. These projects significantly contribute to advancing knowledge and addressing societal challenges, spanning across multiple scientific domains, including the Physical Sciences and Engineering, the Social Sciences and Humanities, and the Life Sciences. Computer science and informatics dominate the projects in the fields of Physical Sciences and Engineering, while projects in Social Sciences and Humanities tend to focus on cognitive science, psychology, and linguistics. The Life Sciences projects generally concentrate on neuroscience, nervous system disorders, disease-related research. Most AI projects were funded through ERC Starting Grants, followed by Consolidator Grants and Advanced Grants, with Synergy Grants (see Swisscore article) exhibiting the highest incidence of AI projects relative to the total number of projects, despite their lower overall numbers.
The penultimate section situates ERC-funded AI research within the broader policy landscape and its ethical implications. It identifies key policy areas (health, green transition, agrifood and ecosystems, democracy, workplace and employment, justice, and law) where these cutting-edge research projects contribute to advancing AI technologies and addressing societal challenges. Furthermore, it explores how ERC projects are expected to advance AI knowledge and may directly or indirectly inform future applications or shape AI policies at the EU and global levels. The final section examines the ethical considerations surrounding ERC-funded AI projects, emphasising the need for early integration of ethical principles tailored to specific use cases. All in all, the policy landscape of ERC-funded AI projects demonstrates the significant impact of cutting-edge research on addressing societal challenges, informing policy decisions, and advancing AI technologies in alignment with key EU policy goals across various sectors.
In summation, the “Mapping ERC Frontier Research Artificial Intelligence” report marks an important step in understanding the various impacts of ERC-funded AI research in Europe. By shedding light on how ERC-funded curiosity-driven research projects are leveraging or advancing Artificial Intelligence in their scientific endeavours, and how these initiatives and their outcomes can contribute to shaping and facilitating the implementation of policies related to AI and its diverse applications, the report underscores the ERC’s commitment to fostering scientific curiosity and driving societal progress in a rapidly evolving technological landscape, encompassing scientific, ethical, and policy dimensions of AI.