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Margrethe Vestager
Former Executive Vice-President of the European Commission who steered the EU AI Act, arguing that general-purpose AI is challenging humanity and that today’s risks of bias and lost human agency are already existential.
Roles
- 3 Oct 2011 – 2 Sept 2014Minister for Economic Affairs and the Interior, Deputy Prime Minister, Government of DenmarkSource →
- 1 Nov 2014 – 30 Nov 2024European Commissioner for Competition, European CommissionSource →
- 1 Dec 2019 – 30 Nov 2024Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, European CommissionAlso took over the Internal Market portfolio after Thierry Breton resigned in September 2024.Source →
- 1 Jan 2025 – presentChair of the Board of Governors, Technical University of Denmark (DTU)Also chairs Think Tank EUROPA's Stocktaking EU advisory board and co-chairs the Europa Power Initiative (start dates not published).Source →
On the record
30 Oct 2024 · Interview · MLex
The risk is that if we are lazy, we are just the meat to the machine. We will not be the decision makers any more.
Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, European Commission at the time
Exit interview a month before leaving the Commission.
Beware 'whatever it takes' approach in policing AI revolution, EU's Vestager warns →
9 Apr 2024 · Speech · Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
With the rise of General Purpose Artificial Intelligence, technology is challenging humanity. … The risks that we experience today – right now – are also existential. They are existential to humans.
Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, European Commission at the time
The lecture's title borrowed Oppenheimer's line "This isn't a new weapon, it is a new world"; she named mortgages, university access and medical treatment as the everyday existential decisions AI now makes.
7 Sept 2023 · Interview · TIME
It's not that they'll believe something that is outrageous or fake, as such. It's even more fundamental: that you stop believing what you see, because it may be fake.
Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, European Commission at the time
On AI-generated disinformation and elections.
Margrethe Vestager: The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2023 →
21 Apr 2021 · Speech · European Commission press conference
The higher the risk that a specific AI may cause to our lives, the stricter the rules. … There is no room for mass surveillance in our society.
Executive Vice-President for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age, European Commission at the time
Presenting the Commission's original proposal for the AI Act.