BRUSSELS — The European Union has a message for its opponents of artificial intelligence: it can innovate as well as regulate.
The EU has been quick to regulate AI – it was one of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s key policy promises in 2019. But as the bloc puts the finishing touches on her AI RulebookSome critics fear the new rules could hamper Europe’s competitive position against the United States, China and other rivals.
To allay these fears, some European leaders – including von der Leyen – have begun touting their efforts to give European startups what they need to keep pace with the global AI race, such as staff, money, data and computing power.
This week, the European Commission is put to present a plan, obtained by POLITICOto connect the bloc’s AI startups to European supercomputers, meeting companies’ need for large amounts of computing power to remain competitive.
Previous agendas of the Commission included down for February 21, suggesting the EU executive has accelerated its AI innovation efforts – just as EU member countries deliberate whether to greenlight the bill on the artificial intelligence of the block.
Commission head von der Leyen gave a outline of the plan to a global audience last week during a conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
In an awe-inspiring speech about the future of technology, von der Leyen said: “AI is also a very important opportunity, if used responsibly,” calling himself a “technological optimist.”
Von der Leyen also highlighted an area where Europe should lead the pack: industrial AI. During this mandate, the Commission has already laid the foundations for improving the machine-generated data sharingwhich could prove essential for automation and the use of AI by industries.
The new plan to give startups and SMEs access to European supercomputers is similar to what “Microsoft is doing for ChatGPT by running it on its own supercomputers,” von der Leyen added, referring to the pioneering companies in the global AI race.
The timing of this innovation surge may not be a coincidence, however.
European lawmakers are in the final stages of working on the AI law. Some member countries, notably Franceattacked the bill before and after a political deal reached in early December, saying it could discourage European innovation in the thriving field.
France feared that the possible introduction of new compliance rules for so-called foundation models – advanced AI architectures similar to that which powers OpenAI’s ChatGPT – would hamper its national champions, such as the AI company open source Mistral. Germany and Italy also shared these concerns.
In November last year, Berlin, Paris and Rome issued a statement calling for looser requirements for foundation models than those envisaged in some versions of the AI law drafted by EU policymakers under the presidency Spanish of the Council of the EU.
The final text of the AI law, drafted in late December under Spanish leadership and seen by POLITICO, largely addresses these demands, replacing the concept of base models with the broader category of AI. General purpose AI – as all three countries had requested.
Yet France has remained evasive about its support for the final version of the AI law.
At the same time, the EU’s innovation effort is not entirely isolated from discussions about how to mitigate the risks of AI – a reminder that while the focus on competitiveness has since long pending, regulatory considerations are still part of the conversation.
A temporary header of the plan specifies that access to European supercomputers is reserved for “ethical and responsible artificial intelligence startups”. It remains to be seen how ethics and responsibility are defined.
The European Commissioner for Innovation, Iliana Ivanova, also present in Davos, told POLITICO that indeed, a “balanced approach” was necessary.
“Clearly, the contribution(s) of AI and supercomputing to increasing productivity, increasing efficiency and bringing much higher efficiency gains is very clear,” she said. At the same time, “we must (…) examine the ethical aspects (and) the human aspect of these projects”.
Gian Volpicelli contributed reporting.
This article has been updated to include a link to the draft EU communications obtained by POLITICO.
