Who's afraid of Artificial Intelligence?

Developed and fiercely defended by some, criticised if not openly feared by others, the phrase on everyone's lips, AI, Artificial Intelligence, generates passionate hopes but also widespread concerns throughout the European Union. Who are the potential winners, and who are the potential losers of this new digital revolution in the making? We travelled to Austria and Estonia to try to find out.

Around 3/4 of European employees have already had practical experience with AI. Artificial Intelligence already develops new virtual reality tools. It helps transcribe medieval manuscripts. It contributes to the design of autonomous vehicles, or futuristic buildings. But its use is also raising concerns in schools and universities, while workers and trade unions fear its effect on certain job categories.

And even artists are confronting its growing capabilities with our own human creativity. Artist Renate Pittroff recently asked different generative AI tools for ideas for a cultural event along a canal in Vienna, Austria´s capital. Artists then literally gave life to the texts suggested by AI, no matter how eccentric they seemed to be. Its hyper-realistic implementation was then turned into an audiovisual exhibition.

“AI is not only always frightening. It is frightening in its potential to reshape reality as we have known it until now. It can be something great, it can be something really bad. It is decisive to make a good use of it. What is very important is that people are very aware of what they are doing with artificial intelligence", said Renate.

The same cautious approach can be found at robotic and VR labs at TU Wien, Vienna University of Technology. Researchers here heavily rely on AI tools to develop robots designed for