Booking.com welcomes new EU rules on Artificial Intelligence
Today marks the adoption of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (EUAIA) by the European Parliament. After the proposal was published in April 2020, a lot of work and effort went into the negotiations of the EUAIA with the aim to adopt the first horizontal legal framework to regulate AI.
Policy-makers agreed on a risk-based approach to regulate AI applications, which provides different rules for riskier AI applications. Policy-makers demonstrated a lot of agility as in the middle of negotiations, the launch of different Large Language Models required an immediate policy response. This is why the rules also contain extra chapter covering rules for General Purpose AI applications (including Generative AI).
The EUAIA is not the only piece of legislation governing AI. Looking ahead, we expect that policy-makers will resume the negotiations in the AI Liability Directive, which is another important part of a horizontal legal framework on AI. It is important to watch the space, as additional rules for AI might be inspired by the European Commission investigation in Generative AI from a competition angle.
What does the EU AI Act mean for Booking.com?
At Booking.com, AI is more than a buzzword — AI has been a cornerstone of our platform for over a decade. In fact, every customer visiting Booking.com is touched by AI. It enables us to deliver a highly optimized experience when searching for the perfect trip. From detecting high-demand properties, to surfacing travel options tailored to your needs in a language you understand, we deploy it from cover to cover.
“Our primary aim at Booking.com has always been to leverage technology to make travel easier,” said Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking.com. “The recent developments with generative AI are accelerating the work we’ve been doing for years with machine learning to enhance and improve every aspect of the customer experience on our platform, whether it’s optimizing the right order to display a hotel’s photos to surfacing the most relevant reviews.”
At its core, we see AI as a key technology that enables us to realize our core value: reducing friction across all aspects of travel. Machine learning already plays a key role for us in matching the enormous data involved in connecting millions of travelers and accommodation providers.
AI will help to tackle the many remaining frictions still out there — from the discovery, the planning, booking, to automatically updating changes as you’re on the trip. And with GenAI, we will soon be able to provide a true digital travel agent so every traveler can receive that personalized touch. We’re excited to bring AI tools to travelers globally, and continue to innovate to make it easier for everyone to experience the world.
