The EU to Increase the Availability of Data for AI and Blockchain Projects

Great guest post by Aubrey Hansen

On June 6, the Council of the European Union announced that they will be providing companies with higher access to important data in regards to artificial intelligence, blockchain, and various other tech areas. Alexandru Petrescu, President of the Council released a statement, explaining that this will “help Europe to become a world leader in this crucial area.”

What data will be available?

The decision by the Council of the European Union states that they will be increasing the amount of content to be classified as Public Sector Information. Anything classified as such is open for use by EU companies, organisations, start-ups, and individuals. Public Sector Information can take the form of any medium, including print media, audio files, and electronic documents. In this case, it will likely be taking the form of complex databases covering a wide range of topics. The press release by the EU lists the following databases which they will be opening access to: “geospatial, earth observation and environment, meteorological, statistics, companies and company ownership, and mobility”, further adding that these will be available either for free or at a nominal cost.

Who will benefit from this?

This ruling has been designed to benefit AI, blockchain, and other tech companies who wish to expand their dataset and improve their tools. The amount of information which will now be open to public access means that organisations can easily expand their projects far beyond what they had initially planned. It will also be especially helpful for start-ups who might not have the initial funding to purchase data or the time to gather their own. Essentially, it allows businesses to kickstart new areas of their projects much sooner than expected, giving them an upper-hand on the world stage.

Velas CEO Alex Alexandrov is heading up one such business which could benefit from the EU’s approach and commented that “The EU, in my opinion, is farther ahead in crypto laws and has created a much better environment for banking and regulations. The US tends to focus more on punishment vs guidelines, while the EU is working toward allowing businesses to feel they are wanted and working with new industries in a much clearer way. This led to many companies moving there?—?Estonia, Czech Republic and Switzerland (Shengen zone). This is one of the reasons why my newest venture Velas or Virtual Expanding Learning Autonomous System, is based in Zug, Switzerland.” 

Perhaps those who will benefit the most are companies who partake in both artificial intelligence and blockchain technology together, such as the aforementioned Velas, DeepBrainChain, and others. These companies are using artificial intelligence to build powerful and reinforced blockchains designed to be impervious to malicious behaviour and human error. Velas uses artificial intelligence to run its new hybrid Delegated Proof of Stake consensus algorithm, and DeepBrainChain uses artificial intelligence to provide privacy controls to its users. Companies like these will soon be able to appreciate a massive pool of knowledge, the likes of which will clearly help them grow and expand quicker than planned.

With the EU recognising the necessity of helping out the blockchain and artificial intelligence industries, hopefully other governments will make the same moves in the future, subsequently bringing forth a new and more powerful era of tech.