Artificial intelligence and future directions for ETSI

Abstract

This White Paper explores key issues of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that present both huge opportunities and new challenges for information and communication technologies (ICT). AI is becoming central to ETSI’s mission of “being at the heart of digital”. Standardization is understood to be a necessary tool in the efficient exploitation of these opportunities, both in Europe and globally. This White Paper details current initiatives and recommends future directions for the ETSI community and the ICT industry in general. ETSI technical bodies are already addressing numerous aspects of using AI in ICT systems. These include 5G systems, network planning and optimization, service provisioning and assurance, operator experience, security, IoT, data management and testing. eHealth and Human Factors technical bodies are considering the use cases for AI and their potential impact on people. This White Paper also discusses some activities of advisory groups, government-sponsored research projects, open-source AI projects, industry alliances and some SDOs, which are creating specifications. These groups are highly relevant as potential partners of ETSI in realizing the benefits of AI. This document recommends extending ETSI outreach activities towards them. This White Paper makes several recommendations, including:

• continuous monitoring of AI activities in ETSI
• evaluation of the technical impact of EU ethical guidelines (See “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy AI”. Published 8th April 2019 [1])
• continuing the effort to achieve interoperability
• supporting a strong focus on testing methods for systems that use AI
• evaluating the required quality of datasets, which may ultimately co-determine AI system performance

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