Following her appointment as president of the European Commission in November 2019, Ursula von der Leyen set out to accomplish a number of initiatives. In particular, von der Leyen tasked Margrethe Vestager, the EU's executive vice president for a Europe fit for the digital age, with issuing an initial proposal for artificial intelligence policy-within 100 days.

Yesterday, the first of these documents was published on the Commission's website. This follows various meetings in Brussels between the European Commission and senior representatives of internet giants Apple, Facebook, and Google; it seems more than likely the subject of AI came up during the course of those meetings. Are these businesses nervous about the possibility of new legislation that might impact their use of AI? Quite possibly.

The EU has a track record of leading with legislation to tackle emerging risks, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), effective as of May 25, 2018; the regulation was followed by the recent California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), effective Jan. 1, 2020.

The privacy software industry has been turbocharged by these legislative acts; G2's Merry Marwig, our lead analyst for privacy, is closely following developments; and we recently launched a new raft of data privacy technology categories to more accurately reflect the tech landscape.