Dialogue on Panasonic Group’s Responsible AI between Panasonic and the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee

Tokyo, Japan – On May 16, members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), including Ms. Christel Schaldemose, chair of the Parliamentary Delegation for relations with Japan, invited representatives from Panasonic Group, including Hiroshi Kutsumi, Director of the Digital & Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology Center, to European House (Delegation of the European Union to Japan, Minato-ku, Tokyo) to discuss AI Ethics in Panasonic Group. The parties exchanged meaningful opinions on how Panasonic Group develops and uses AI responsibly, and the actual use of Panasonic Group ethical guidelines.

The EU is currently in the final stages in finalizing the AI Act, which will be the first law that regulates AI. The general objective of the AI act is to ensure that AI systems are aligned with the EU’s Fundamental Rights, while also putting safeguards in place for high-risk categories of AI systems.
In August 2022, Panasonic Group announced our “AI Ethical Principles” that must be observed throughout the Group so that our customers can trust and use the Panasonic Group’s AI products and services.
As a leading manufacturing company with a consumer business, our stance on “responsible AI” and a focus on consumer protections against AI caught the attention of the European Parliament delegation, which led to this meeting.

Panasonic Group explained the status of AI utilization throughout the Panasonic Group and AI ethical governance initiatives. There was a great deal of interest in the characteristics of AI ethics governance unique to our company, which provides products and services globally, the future prospects of the AI ethics check system, and the positioning of AI ethics principles.
In addition, from the perspective of consumer protection, IMCO understood and agreed with our company’s policy that customer centrality is one of the most important factors, and that AI ethical principles are not only critical to develop but even more important to operationalize.

The Panasonic Group takes AI Ethics Principles as essential for human-centric AI development and utilization. Going forward, we will continue to practice responsible AI utilization and deliver innovative products and services that solve lifestyle and social issues.

Panasonic Group’s Responsible AI
https://tech-ai.panasonic.com/en/responsible-ai/

Founded in 1918, and today a global leader in developing innovative technologies and solutions for wide-ranging applications in the consumer electronics, housing, automotive, industry, communications, and energy sectors worldwide, the Panasonic Group switched to an operating company system on April 1, 2022 with Panasonic Holdings Corporation serving as a holding company and eight companies positioned under its umbrella. The Group reported consolidated net sales of 8,378.9 billion yen for the year ended March 31, 2023. To learn more about the Panasonic Group, please visit: https://holdings.panasonic/global/