Following the emergence of open public databases and connected objects, big data and artificial intelligence are developing rapidly, especially in medicine, with many opportunities ranging from complex diagnostic assistance to real-time statistical analysis. In order to promote their development and guide their use in the field of internal medicine, guidelines and recommendations are needed. First of all, this article seeks to clarify the concepts of big data and artificial intelligence and the correlations between each other, and then to give an overview of the progress made at European level in this rapidly expanding field.