AI and Protecting Knowledge Systems in the EU: Providing a Strategic Context for the EU’s Digital Transition

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how people across the world produce, share and assess the reliability of knowledge. Professor Raluca Csernatoni argues that“epistemic security”, i.e. protecting and ensuring reliable knowledge systems, should be a strategic objective in the European Union’s digital agenda, covering regulation, industrial policy, democratic governance and public audit. She argues that the EU’s move towards deregulation in relation to AI risks compounding regulatory weaknesses in certain areas, just when trusted and secure knowledge systems are ever more vital to underpin EU democracies. Europe’s AI debate is still too often presented as a trade-off between innovation and regulation, but this misses the point. AI in all its forms is reshaping the publicly available systems where people go to seek information and knowledge. Making these systems secure and reliable is therefore a test of Europe’sdigital sovereignty, democratic resilience and technological might.