Is Europe Finally Catching Up in AI?

With so many strategies, announcements, and launches, are there signs the EU is finally closing the gap? | Edition #240

This week, the European Commission launched two new initiatives to accelerate AI deployment in the EU:

• The “Apply AI Strategy,” which aims to foster the use of AI in Europe’s key industries and the public sector; and

• The “AI in Science Strategy,” which aims to position the EU as a hub for AI-driven scientific innovation.

These two initiatives are part of Europe's AI Continent Plan, announced earlier this year, in which Europe officially stated its commitment to becoming a global leader in AI.

The European strategy is based on five pillars: computing infrastructure, data, skills, the development and adoption of algorithms, and regulatory simplification. Among the initiatives recently launched are AI factories, the AI Act Service Desk, and others.

So, back to my initial question: with so many strategies, announcements, and launches, are there signs that Europe is finally catching up in AI?

To answer this question, we first have to look at the rest of the world, as Europeans are, of course, not the only ones determined to become global AI leaders.

The AI race is highly competitive, with high stakes. A country or region that manages to achieve global dominance in AI infrastructure, research, development, and market adoption could potentially extract extreme profits, geopolitical influence, and technological supremacy over the rest of the world.

Countries like China, the U.S., the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and India have also announced their commitment to becoming global leaders in AI, so Europe as a continent is competing against powerful players who will not give up easily.

The second challenge is to define what “winning the AI race” means in practice. I find it hard to believe there will be a single winner from all possible angles in which there can be strategic advantages, including research, infrastructure, chip manufacturing, model development, market adoption, niche applications, and so on.

Winning any aspect of the economic race at the cost of causing irreparable damage to the environment, eroding fundamental rights, increasing inequality, destroying the labor market, and risking a major AI-led catastrophe does not really look like ‘winning’ (although it will likely be framed as such).

Going back to the EU: as I have been writing in this newsletter over the past year, since the September 2024 Draghi report, which highlighted through various indicators that Europe is lagging behind, the EU appears to have changed its direction and reorganized its priorities.