This year’s key areas include alignment of AI with European values. General Purpose AI Code of Practice is presented as a strategic approach, though previously criticized by CCS organisations as weakening copyright. 'Democracy as a common good' includes media freedom. No reference to culture.
By Creatives Unite NewsroomAiming at ‘Resilience 2.0’ until 2040 and beyond, the 2025 Strategic Foresight Report addresses “the scale, complexity, diversity and persistence of challenges ahead". The third of the eight key areas of the report focuses on “Harnessing the power of technology and research”, through capitalizing the “enormous transformative power of AI” as a driver of “prosperity, inclusiveness, safety, security, and democratic trust”.
To achieve global leadership in shaping “ethical and safe AI innovations that are transparent, accountable and human centric”, the EU must “influence how technology systems and infrastructures are built and what goals they optimise for” reads the Report. It continues that: “The AI Gigafactories as infrastructure or the General Purpose AI Code of Practice as a de facto standard for the safety and security of advanced AI are promising examples of such smart and strategic approaches”.
The General Purpose AI Code of Practice entered into force in the summer. It was mostly expected by the CCS ecosystem as having a massive influence on copyright implementation and incomes. CCS organisations expressed their disappointment with the final text. They considered it as “not a balanced compromise” but a “betrayal of the EU AI Act’s objectives”, weakening their situation despite “extensive, highly detailed and good-faith engagements by the rightsholders communities”, and to the benefit of GenAI companies “that have built their services by infringing EU copyright rules”.
Strengthening democracy as a common good including by supporting digital and media literacy and media independence are also of CCS interest among the key areas of EU action. In this context, “The EU, Member States, and candidate countries should assertively pursue the shared vision for the EU [...] safeguarding and promoting the rule of law, media freedom, and civil society freedoms, and in strengthening the toolbox for combatting foreign information manipulation and interference, and disinformation”.
AI literacy is included also in the sixth key area aiming at strengthening "resilience, reducing inequalities, and ensuring that the benefits of AI are widely shared".
The report presents a “non-exhaustive list of key areas of action which can have a major impact on strengthening the EU’s overall resilience”. Culture is not included in any of the key areas. This was also the case with previous Foresight Reports, published annually since 2020.
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