With ground-breaking rules on AI on the table in the EU, Allied for Startups brings trailblazing AI startup entrepreneurs to the European Parliament to share their ideas and ambitions with policy makers.

Stine co-founded Radiobotics to build machine learning algorithms that support radiologists. Lars co-founded Corti.ai to help medical professionals diagnose illnesses in emergency calls. What do these startups have in common? They’re both literally working on life-changing technology that can benefit citizens in Europe directly. They also are led by ambitious entrepreneurs, uniting a great idea with technology, creating jobs and looking for a scalable model to deploy it with.

What is less apparent is that both Radiobotics and Corti.ai would be classified as high-risk applications under newly proposed European AI rules, since they operate in the health space. This could entail ex-ante conformity checks and new obligations for liability. As it is still early days for the regulation it is unclear what exactly this would mean for Radiobotics or Corti.ai. That is why, on the day of the release of the EU Digital Strategy, Allied for Startups and the Danish Entrepreneurs Association decided to invite these first-hand examples to the European Parliament. 

The panel discussion allowed AI startup entrepreneurs in the health space to share their vision and experience first-hand. Unsurprisingly, they are already heavily regulated. Surprisingly, due to the sensitive nature of health, entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily against this, so long as there is clear guidance involved. It is important to them that AI rules are viewed in the context of GDPR, the Medical Device Regulation, and many other laws that startups in this field have to navigate. It is not like there is a legal vacuum for them at the moment. At the same time, entrepreneurs report active ouvertures from the US FDA, which is fully aware of these struggles and luring startups across the Atlantic.

Overall, startup entrepreneurs are ambitiously looking at all the possibilities AI has for the economy, society and innovation-at-large. New European legislation on AI has the potential to create a harmonised framework where these startups can thrive and scale in. The EU can provide clear and straightforward rules for the  entrepreneurs working on AI to do just that.

Allied for Startups will continue to host a variety of events on the development of AI to bring a constructive, case-based approach to the discussions on AI rules for Europe.

Update: Short video interviews with Corti.ai and Radiobotics founders are available here.