The Definition of AI was prepared to establish a coherent conceptual foundation for the EU’s ethical and policy framework on artificial intelligence, addressing the lack of a common understanding across disciplines and institutions. It defines AI as “systems designed by humans that, given a complex goal, act in the physical or digital world by perceiving their environment, interpreting data, reasoning on derived knowledge, and deciding the best actions to achieve the given goal”, while recognising learning, reasoning, and robotics as its core scientific domains. By clarifying AI’s scope, structure, and capabilities, this document laid the groundwork for subsequent EU initiatives, notably the Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI (2019) and the EU AI Act, ensuring conceptual consistency across governance, research, and regulation.
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