EU AI Act · China · Donald Trump · Apple · Google · The Guardian Technology
Why Europe has been absent from the great AI safety debate
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
Europe’s dilemma over AI was rendered in stark terms this week.
Key facts
- Frederike Kaltheuner, an adviser to the AI Now Institute, a research body, says that Europe is dependent on US technology in ways that will be hard to undo, from search engines to chips to datacentres
- Margrethe Vestager, who clashed with the US tech industry as the EU’s former competition commissioner, co-authored a report this week, A Transformative AI Strategy for Europe, that echoed Lagarde’s
- There must be space for humanity between the egos of leaders like President Xi and President Trump
- Europe has a competitiveness problem, that’s true,” says Itxaso Dominguez de Olazabal, a policy adviser at EDRI, a European digital rights organisation
Summary
The great debate over AI safety that has erupted in recent days threatens to make the choice moot. Europe has largely been absent from the highest levels of that debate, a result of the continent’s longstanding inability to produce a Silicon Valley-scale titan like Apple, Google or newcomer OpenAI. Ursula von der Leyen, a powerful political figure on the continent as president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, addressed the issue this week by saying she will “invite the main frontier labs for a discussion on how we can support ongoing industry efforts to pace the frontier”. Her remarks gained nowhere as much traction as Donald Trump and China’s dismissal of a slowdown. If Europe invests in its own AI tech, said Lagarde, “the threat of being cut off loses its force.” Self-sufficiency would also give Europe a chance to develop its own answer to the AI safety crisis.