All hail the AI Eurocrat: Commission rolls out its own ChatGPT-like tool

Some of the Commission’s tasks, such as translating its many press releases and rulebooks, are already heavily reliant on AI.

But “GPT@EC,” as the new tool is called, is one of the first attempts to roll out a generative AI tool that resembles mass-market products like ChatGPT, which functions by having a person enter an instruction as a prompt in a chatbox, after which AI generates the requested text, images or video.

DG DIGIT Deputy Director General Philippe Van Damme said on LinkedIn that the department had launched the tool last week.

He said it could help Commission staff create drafts, summarize documents, brainstorm or generate software code.

A Commission official, granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, confirmed the tool had been rolled out as a pilot project and would be widened to the rest of the Commission staff “in the next few weeks.”

The tool is based on an earlier developed program called GPT@JRC, tested inside the Commission’s science unit, the Joint Research Centre (JRC). A second Commission official sent screenshots, allowing POLITICO to review the tool’s setup.