Europe’s tech ambition risks greater reliance on the US

{"text":[[{"start":5.904,"text":"Europe’s growing reliance on US artificial intelligence models is forcing the EU to confront an uncomfortable trade-off: the technologies that can help close its productivity gap with the US are also deepening its dependence on the country."}],[{"start":20.92,"text":"US companies dominate much of the technology stack underpinning the AI boom, from advanced chips to the most powerful AI models. They also control critical distribution channels, such as operating systems, app stores, browsers and search engines, through which new AI services reach consumers."}],[{"start":40.76,"text":"This dependence was underlined in June when the Trump administration temporarily banned foreign access to Anthropic’s most advanced AI models."}],[{"start":48.88,"text":"The decision, made on national security grounds, has increased concerns in Europe that the Trump administration is prepared to weaponise access to US technology. In response to the overall fears, the EU drew up a “tech sovereignty” strategy aimed at loosening its dependence on US tech by backing European alternatives in sectors from semiconductors and cloud computing to AI."}],[{"start":69.879,"text":"At the same time, Brussels also wants European companies to adopt AI as quickly as possible to revive sluggish productivity growth. “AI is fast becoming a foundational layer for our economy and security,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in her State of the Union speech in September."}],[{"start":89.32,"text":"But analysts have warned that the quest for digital sovereignty, which will take time, runs counter to Brussels’ desire to push European companies to adopt AI as quickly as possible to revive sluggish productivity growth."}],[{"start":101.114,"text":"“The European Commission is pushing for European firms to adopt AI more quickly, recognising that this offers the best path to productivity growth and is essential to boost European innovation across the economy,” Zach Meyers, of the Brussels-based think-tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (Cerre) says."}],[{"start":120.22,"text":"“This sends conflicting signals, since improving AI take-up in Europe largely means increasing the bloc’s dependence on US technologies and, increasingly, infrastructure.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":130.48,"text":"That dilemma is becoming more acute as the US and China extend their lead in the global AI race. US growth has been lifted by investment in AI, data centres and advanced semiconductors. In his landmark report on European competitiveness in 2024, former European Central Bank governor Mario Draghi said that “if we exclude the tech sector, EU productivity growth over the past 20 years would be broadly at par with the US”."}],[{"start":156.88,"text":"But, as Draghi pointed out, Europe has struggled to translate its scientific and industrial strengths into globally dominant technology companies."}],[{"start":167.84,"text":"The EU’s tech chief Henna Virkkunen insists Europe “has what it takes to compete”, adding: “We have the talent. We have a solid cyber security and AI ecosystem. We have AI factories and, in the future, AI gigafactories that can be part of a sovereign European infrastructure for AI and cyber security.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":183.68,"text":"But some in Brussels are becoming increasingly concerned that the EU’s dependency stretches beyond the obvious weak spots in chips, cloud computing and large language models. Alberto Bacchiega, a senior European Commission official responsible for enforcing the Digital Markets Act, is pushing to resolve the data and distribution bottlenecks that can determine which AI companies succeed."}],[{"start":205.24,"text":"Tasos Stampelos, who leads the public governments team in Europe for Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser, agrees. “We can build amazing models . . . but if only a handful of companies are actually controlling this distribution layer, then those models will never reach the business users.”"}],[{"start":221.32,"text":"The EU’s increasingly assertive industrial policy focusing on reducing strategic dependencies is a key part of its competitiveness agenda. Officials in Brussels believe Europe’s vast amounts of industrial data and engineering expertise will prove to be an advantage as AI spreads from chatbots into factories, hospitals and other physical systems."}],[{"start":241.6,"text":"Some obstacles in achieving those goals have little to do with US tech companies, says Meyers."}],[{"start":246.48,"text":"“The bigger problems for AI investment in Europe are perennial ones. Data centres take a long time to deploy due to national planning laws and regulatory requirements. Customer take-up remains sluggish in some important customer groups, such as the public sector. And high energy prices mean the EU is at a structural disadvantage.”"}],[{"start":266.72,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1794399690_2843.mp3"}