EU AI Policy Observatory

Published document record

AI Watch: defining artificial intelligence 2.0

Official metadata

Official title
AI Watch. Defining Artificial Intelligence 2.0: Towards an operational definition and taxonomy for the AI landscape
Official reference
JRC126426; EUR 30873 EN; DOI 10.2760/019901
Document type
Report
Document date
2021-10-29
Document date kind
Publication
Document-date evidence
European Commission, Joint Research Centre · Date available panel and embedded dc.date.available = 2021-10-29; linked English PDF and matching JRC identifier. — Official repository publication availability used as document-date fallback; no exact independent issue day is asserted.
Publication date
2021-10-29
Publication-date evidence
European Commission, Joint Research Centre · Date available / dc.date.available = 2021-10-29. — Release of the cited official repository manifestation; not asserted to be first publication on every EU host.
Version label
Second edition
Legal status
Non binding
Legal-status evidence
European Commission, Joint Research Centre · PDF p.2, scientific-report disclaimer. — Evidence-based scientific support report, expressly not a Commission policy position or binding legal act.
Language
en

Research classifications

These are researcher classifications used to organise and analyse the corpus; they are not official EU metadata.

Record level
Version
Version status
Revised
Temporal collection
Contemporary EU AI policy
Relevance class
Direct AI relevance
Policy stage
Agenda setting
Corpus tier
Directly related
Sectors
  • General cross sector
  • Health
  • Employment and labour
  • Financial services
  • Transport and mobility
  • Education
  • Media and culture
  • Research and innovation
  • Industry and manufacturing
  • Agriculture and environment
  • Critical infrastructure
  • Cybersecurity
Policy membership
  • EU AI policy pathway

Classification evidence

  • Relevance class: Direct AI relevance · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · PDF p.8 (printed p.3), Abstract: second edition incorporates the AI Act proposal and extends the AI taxonomy across policy, research, industry and applications. — AI is the substantive object of this policy-support report.
  • Sector tags: General cross sector · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · PDF p.8 (printed p.3), Abstract: second edition incorporates the AI Act proposal and extends the AI taxonomy across policy, research, industry and applications. — Researcher sector classification based on the report's substantive scope.
  • Sector tags: Research and innovation · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · PDF p.8 (printed p.3), Abstract: second edition incorporates the AI Act proposal and extends the AI taxonomy across policy, research, industry and applications. — Researcher sector classification based on the report's substantive scope.
  • Provenance tags: Authored by an EU institution · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · PDF p.2 report-by-JRC statement; named author credits. — JRC institutional report, with named personal authors retained; hosting alone is not authorship.
  • Provenance tags: Officially published · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · Public repository availability and linked English manifestation. — Official institutional publication record.
  • Sector tags: Industry and manufacturing · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · JRC126426, sections 3.4.1 Production processes and 3.4.2 C. Manufacturing, printed pp. 17-18 (PDF pp. 22-23). — Explicitly classifies AI applications in production: predictive maintenance, visual defect detection, autonomous assembly and process optimisation. This is application-taxonomy coverage, not a manufacturing policy recommendation.
  • Sector tags: Agriculture and environment · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · JRC126426, section 3.4.2 A. Agriculture, forestry and fishing, printed p. 18 (PDF p. 23). — Maps agricultural robots and crop/soil monitoring to a dedicated economic-sector application category. The combined label is supported by agriculture, not a claim of comprehensive environmental analysis.
  • Sector tags: Critical infrastructure · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · JRC126426, section 3.4.2 D. Electricity and Gas supply and E. Water supply, Waste management, printed p. 19 (PDF p. 24). — Classifies operational energy and utility applications including autonomous grid management, smart energy storage and smart meters. The project label does not assert a legal designation of every listed application as critical infrastructure.
  • Sector tags: Transport and mobility · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · JRC126426, section 3.4.2 H. Transportation and storage, printed p. 19 (PDF p. 24). — Includes a dedicated transport application category with automatic train operation, route optimisation and autonomous mobility on demand.
  • Sector tags: Financial services · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · JRC126426, section 3.4.2 K. Finance, insurance, printed p. 19 (PDF p. 24). — Maps anomaly detection, forecasting, robotic process automation and high-frequency trading to a dedicated finance/insurance application category.
  • Sector tags: Education · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · JRC126426, section 3.4.2 P. Education, printed p. 19 (PDF p. 24). — Specifies educational AI applications including automatic test generation, e-learning and early detection of learning-related disorders, within an explicit sector classification.
  • Sector tags: Health · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · JRC126426, section 3.4.2 Q. Human health, Social work, printed p. 19 (PDF p. 24). — Classifies healthcare applications including image-based diagnosis, measurement devices, companion robots and surgical robots. Examples are not efficacy or deployment-validation claims.
  • Sector tags: Media and culture · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · JRC126426, section 3.3 Artistic creation and design, printed p. 17 (PDF p. 22); section 3.4.2 R. Recreation activities, printed p. 19 (PDF p. 24). — Defines an artistic-creation application category through music/painting synthesis and character animation, with further creative and virtual/augmented reality applications. The combined label is supported by cultural creation rather than media-regulation analysis.
  • Sector tags: Cybersecurity · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · JRC126426, section 3.4.1 ICT security, printed p. 18 (PDF p. 23). — Explicitly groups computer-vision authentication and machine-learning cyber-attack detection/prevention under an ICT-security business function.
  • Sector tags: Employment and labour · European Commission, Joint Research Centre · JRC126426, section 3.4.1 Human resources management or recruiting, printed p. 18 (PDF p. 23). — Defines a dedicated application category covering candidate screening, employee profiling/performance analysis and turnover prediction. This concerns workplace AI use, not a finding about employment effects.

Production provenance

Provenance tags
  • Authored by an EU institution
  • Officially published
Named bibliographic authors
Institutions and roles

Official sources and identifiers

  • Official source · Publisher/host: European Commission, Joint Research Centre
  • Official source · Publisher/host: European Commission, Joint Research Centre

Previous and next versions

Research assessment

Inclusion rationale
PDF p.8 (printed p.3), Abstract: second edition incorporates the AI Act proposal and extends the AI taxonomy across policy, research, industry and applications.
Researcher notes
Independently citable second edition with its own DOI and authorship order; linked to the first edition by an evidenced revises relationship. The AI Watch page truncates the DOI to 10.2760/01990; the complete PDF and JRC catalogue identify 10.2760/019901. At the initial review on 6 September 2026, concept and policy annotations were uncompleted. Concept tags were subsequently populated in the 7 September 2026 concept review. Policy-group membership was added in the 12 September 2026 navigation review; membership does not establish a legal relationship.
Review status
verified

Relationships

No additional published relationships touch this record.

Verification

Expanded evidence review
Verified
Reviewed by
Yichen Hao
Evidence review date
2026-09-06T22:54:17Z

The evidence review date is not a separate human sign-off date. Review credit and evidence-review actions

  • Last verified: 2026-09-06T22:54:17Z · JRC title, identity, Date available, embedded dc.date.available, author list and linked PDF inspected. Captured bytes SHA-256 e1ddf26502be715c2a417d792f499d565fba33633a5a4d59a915b195730c9eb6; receipt in research/reviews/2026-09-06-candidate-snapshot/root-source-checks.json. Local capture, not a permanent public archive.
  • Last verified: 2026-09-06T22:54:17Z · English PDF cover, imprint, author credits and cited substantive sections inspected. Captured bytes SHA-256 c857bcc427078426480c84136836925632f66acea1f6af7d8037d6b04c8efe66; receipt in research/reviews/2026-09-06-candidate-snapshot/root-source-checks.json. Local capture, not a permanent public archive.

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