Welcome to the FORSEE Newsletter, your gateway to updates on research results and perspectives in societally successful AI.
In this newsletter:
- Results from FORSEE’s recent publications: what AI success means for institutions and professional associations, SMEs and CSOs, social media users, and the press
- Upcoming events and news from FORSEE
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What does “AI success” actually mean and for whom?
Across Europe, policymakers are working towards building a successful AI ecosystem, from the implementation of the EU AI Act to calls to simplify regulation and boost competitiveness.
But one key question often remains unclear: what does “AI success” actually mean in practice, and for whom?
According to FORSEE’s research across 11 publications, the answer depends entirely on whom you ask. Here are the key perspectives:
Supranational and technical institutions, standards bodies and ISO regulatory bodies: Success has evolved from ethical principles towards compliance, standardisation, and risk management
When global institutions define successful artificial intelligence, they evaluate the technology across four key themes: its technical architecture, applications, potential risks and harms, and governance. The European Union, in particular, has traded broad moral reflection for strict procedural rules.
Standard-setting bodies define AI success through compliance with established rules. They treat technology failures as administrative challenges that organisations must manage.
Evolution of supranational institutional success criteria in post-2018 AI guidelines
This publication analyses how supranational institutions define AI success. It examines 13 key policies, guidelines, and regulations issued by supranational bodies, including the EU, OECD, UN, and Council of Europe, between 2018 and 2025. Read more.
AI Success criteria by national standards and ISO regulatory bodies
This publication analyses how international and national technical standards bodies define success in artificial intelligence. It examines 36 AI-related standards published between 2018 and 2025 by the International Organization for Standardisation and the German Institute for Standardisation. Read more.
Professional associations: Success is human oversight and accountability
Legal, healthcare, and engineering professionals reject purely technical definitions of AI success. Instead, they emphasise human oversight, institutional accountability, and the protection of core professional values, rather than stand-alone technical achievement.
Success criteria by professional associations in the EU
This publication explores how success criteria for artificial intelligence are articulated in 22 policies and guidelines issued by legal, healthcare, and engineering professional associations in the EU between 2018 and 2025. Read more.
Civil society: Success is rights, accountability, and safeguards
Our research found that CSOs demonstrate high awareness of AI risks that are less prominent in mainstream media: erosion of democratic processes, intensified surveillance, gender bias, and a lack of accountability from technology providers and public authorities.
“We’re seeing less human moderation, and more space for what they (Meta, X) call ‘free opinions,’ including narratives that are extremely toxic and that previously were regulated.”
“I think the problem is the liability and accountability that cannot be clearly established.”
“We move towards a point where our confusion is being weaponised—what we know, what limits are in place, and how all of this is being put into the world and into the things we’re working on.”
— CSO workshop participants.
Analysis of Civil Society Organisations’ perspectives on AI impact on gender imbalance
This report examines civil society organisations’ (CSOs) perspectives on artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on AI-related gender bias, existing mitigation practices, and the structural constraints that shape CSO engagement. Read more.
Startups & SMEs: Success is innovation under pressure
For European SMEs, AI is welcomed for its potential to empower people, reduce operational costs, and drive productivity gains. While many welcome regulation as a way to level the playing field, they also highlight significant challenges in implementation:
“I think the AI Act is a very good initiative. I fully support it and believe it’s necessary because I know there are risks; even the biggest AI experts have warned about them. I definitely think the AI Act is needed, not only in Europe but worldwide, and I look forward to seeing a situation where everything related to AI is properly regulated.”
“I would like the regulation explained much better. I’m not a fan of the abstract regulations that spook the whole population and leaves them hesitant to use a piece of groundbreaking technology.”
— SME interviewees.
Narrative framework on success among SME representatives
The study used interviews and workshops across 15 EU Member States, gathering insights from 39 SME representatives. Read more.
SME awards: Success is market performance
Despite the European rhetoric of “innovation for social good,” practical evaluations of AI success still largely ignore ethical or sustainability metrics. Innovation awards heavily privilege traditional business models focused on scalability, commercial readiness, revenue potential, and administrative conformity. This preference risks reinforcing existing inequalities, as market-oriented criteria tend to favour actors with prior access to capital and important networks.
Typology of success criteria for innovative SME awards
This study analysed 91 innovation award documents (2023-2025), finding that market-oriented and institutional criteria dominate award evaluation whilst societal, ethical, and environmental considerations remain marginal, thereby misaligning innovation incentives with European policy commitments. Read more.
Social media: Success is coping with uncertainty
Our analysis shows that people on major social media platforms are approaching AI in a conditional and instrumental way. Users adopt generative AI tools not out of enthusiasm but under pressure to keep up with platform economies and broader labour expectations. Each platform’s design and every country’s unique context greatly influence the public debate, which encompasses both hopes and fears.
“I wonder what corporations want with the money when 80-90% of jobs will be replaced by robots and AI. I see more of an end to the market economy.”
— German commenter on YouTube.
Social media analysis of AI applications
Drawing on a comparative dataset of user-generated content from Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube across France, Germany, Ireland, and Spain, this publication examines how public discourse on social media negotiates, shapes, and contests the definitions of AI success and failure. Read more.
The press: Success is Geopolitical Competitiveness
Our analysis shows that newspaper coverage across four European countries frames AI success mainly through economic and geopolitical lenses, centred on catching up with the US and China. The discussion is dominated by powerful figures, such as Trump, Musk and Macron, and US-based tech companies.
“The USA and China are already much further ahead in AI than Europe and it is a great shame that the EU is not an AI powerhouse.”
— Süddeutsche Zeitung, 29/03/2022.
Through a computational analysis of 31,294 articles across France, Germany, Ireland, and Spain, this publication investigates the construction of AI narratives within the European press, analysing how success and failure were framed between 2022 and 2025. Read more.
Across all perspectives, one thing is clear: AI success is fragmented, anddifferent actors prioritise different values and cooperate with different incentives. The real challenge is not defining success but aligning it. This means bridging policy and practice, supporting SMEs in implementation, including public concerns and trust, and moving beyond purely economic metrics. If we don’t ask “success for whom?”, we risk building AI that works for some, but not for society.
Explore all FORSEE publications here.
Upcoming events and news from FORSEE
Webinar: Navigating the Intersection of the EU AI Act and the EU Accessibility Act, 21 May 2026
Designers face a legal contradiction when building inclusive technology. The European Accessibility Act requires digital services to adapt to specific user needs, while the AI Act prohibits systems from inferring sensitive characteristics like disability status.
Join us on 21 May 2026 for a webinar with the ALFIE project and Transmedia Catalonia Access Talks to examine this friction. Speakers from research, civil society, and the technology sector will discuss how frameworks can accommodate diverse accessibility needs. Reserve a spot and join the conversation.
Redefining trustworthy algorithms: the American University of Armenia joins FORSEE
We welcome the American University of Armenia Center for Ethics in Public Affairs to the FORSEE project! Supported by a €600,000 Horizon Europe grant, a team of five researchers from AUA will lead FORSEE’s work on trustworthy AI in the age of LLMs.
Under the leadership of Professor Maria Baghramian, they bring distinctive expertise in philosophy and ethics to investigate the environmental and healthcare impacts of these systems. Learn more about this partnership and upcoming public workshops, and see the in-person launch event below.
