European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a stark warning on Tuesday, stating that the EU must “double its efforts” to avoid falling behind in the global race for artificial intelligence, which has become “the new frontier of competitiveness”, according to a report by the French news agency.
In her address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, von der Leyen stated, “First come, first served, and the race has already started; our future competitiveness depends on integrating artificial intelligence into our daily activities.”
She emphasized that “artificial intelligence is capable of enhancing productivity at a rate previously unknown… This is the new frontier of competitiveness, and Europe is well-positioned to become a champion in using artificial intelligence to transform vital infrastructure.”
While the United States and China currently lead the way in developing these technologies, von der Leyen remarked, “Europe must double its efforts and show the way towards responsible use of artificial intelligence.”
The European Union boasts “200,000 experienced AI engineers” which outnumber those in the US or China (Shutterstock)
The EU agreed in December on a groundbreaking global legislation to regulate artificial intelligence, aiming to foster innovation while preventing potential abuses of these technologies after complex negotiations.
The report indicates that in response to the evolution of American generative AI tools (such as OpenAI’s “Chat GPT” and Google’s “Bard”), EU member countries are concerned that overregulation might stifle European companies’ projects in their infancy, including “Aleph Alpha” in Germany and “Mistral AI” in France, by making the development of these technologies prohibitively expensive.
The final text establishes binding rules for everyone to ensure the quality of data used in developing algorithms and to verify that they do not violate copyright, along with strengthening restrictions on the more powerful systems in sensitive areas.
For Ursula von der Leyen, this legislation “establishes an environment of trust” by separately addressing “high-risk” scenarios, such as real-time biometric identification, which “allows for innovation in all other areas.”
Von der Leyen noted that the EU has “200,000 engineers with expertise in artificial intelligence,” a number that “exceeds that of the United States or China.”
She added that the 27 EU countries have a “huge competitive advantage in industrial data” through the ability to “train systems with unparalleled quality data.”
Finally, von der Leyen stated, “We want to invest in this field” and enhance the access of European startups and small and medium enterprises to the continent’s supercomputers, as well as to “shared data spaces in all EU languages,” ensuring that artificial intelligence “works also for non-English speakers.”
