Is Europe ready for rogue AI? EU chief Henna Virkkunen weighs in

On Friday, EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen announced that Europe’s rules setting guardrails on AI use which were adopted by the bloc two years ago are perfectly adequate for addressing rogue agents.

Primarily, this stems from escalating global anxiety sparked by recent events at OpenAI and Anthropic fueling fears that rogue AI systems may spiral out of control.

The European AI Act which regulates the use of the technology based on the level of risk is regulated as the gold standard for global AI regulation.

Virkkunen said in an interview, “We see that the safety and security of very capable models is a very hot ​topic internationally and we in Europe are well equipped for that.”

“We have our AI Act in place and the AI Act covers the whole life cycle ​of these models."

She was further of the view that regulators are providing guidance on how to validate their models and how much time is required to allocate for this and would also incorporate guidance from a 60-member council of academic and institutional AI specialists.

The European Commission sent further requests for information in late August to several AI companies inquiring about their risk mitigation protocols and pressing for details on their compliance and intellectual property standards.

Virkkunen said the Commission noted that the most capable models in the markets were from the United States and China. Additionally, Virkkunen asserted that the ball is in the court of EU governments who are now discussing funding available for investment in the EU budget for 2028 to 2034 and whether the bloc should introduce a digital tax that would primarily affect large US tech companies.