Europe’s dilemma over AI was rendered in stark terms this week. The head of the continent’s central bank, Christine Lagarde, said Europeans have two options: shun the technology and lose out on growth; or embrace it and become dependent on tools developed by the US and China. The great debate over AI safety that has erupted in recent days threatens to make the choice moot.
If the worst scenarios come to bear – and experts have differing views on this – then the technology will impact the continent regardless. 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. While it is a powerhouse in regulation, much to the White House’s chagrin, its lack of an Anthropic or Nvidia-sized frontrunner in the AI race has diminished its voice in the safety debate.
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. Without the support of Washington or Beijing, any sort of pacing is impossible – with our without Europe’s input.
Lagarde’s speech on Monday underlined the continent’s relative weakness. She asserted that Europe must develop its own AI technology and build more datacentres in order to nullify the threat of being cut off by the US or China. 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.
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 warning. AI threatens to accelerate a development already affecting Europe, where citizens “are already bearing the economic and social consequences of decisions taken elsewhere”, she says. Solutions to this, according to the report, include building more datacentres – the central nervous systems of AI – and also to ensure the continent is resilient enough to withstand “AI crises” like a powerful model slipping out of control.
Vestager said that Europe does have a voice in the safety debate through its EU AI Act, the rare piece of AI legislation that sets out requirements for developers of “high-risk” AI systems to report safety incidents and address risks like a cutting-edge model evading control. But she adds: “Europe must … build its own AI to strengthen the ecosystem, retain talent, and inspire innovation.” Vestager acknowledges that if there is an existential threat, it requires a global solution; one that does not hand power to the US and China. And that requires a different kind of supranational body.
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