American Vice-President J.D. Vance cautioned Europe this week not to “strangle” the development of artificial intelligence with “overly precautionary” regulations. And, at the AI Action summit in Paris, both the US and the UK held back from signing a declaration that included a call on countries to ensure “safe, secure and trustworthy” AI technology.
About 60 other states, including China, agreed to sign the non-binding declaration, but the US and UK refusal was a “setback” to France’s ambitions for “international consensus around the technology”, said the Financial Times.
And yet, this summit was actually notable for its big “pivot” away from the “safety and governance” focus of previous AI summits, said Politico, as European politicians tried to make a late entry into the AI race with promises of “massive investments” and “light regulation”.
Why did the UK and US refuse to sign the agreement?
The US was apparently “put off” signing the declaration by the “language around multilateralism”, said the FT, while a British government spokesperson said the wording “didn’t provide enough clarity on global governance”, said Sky News.
Since taking office, President Trump has quickly sought to deregulate and invest in the US AI sector, and his impatience with the idea of international tech rules was no doubt behind his vice-president’s accusation at the summit that European countries “stifle innovation and create unnecessary hurdles for US businesses”, said Politico.
The US is, therefore, reluctant to sign up for any multinational governance that might obstruct America’s race “to maintain its advantage over China”, said the FT.
The UK, too, is aiming to follow its own guidelines on AI, with the government hoping AI-driven innovation could bring £47 billion to the economy each year.
But one of the summit’s speakers, physics professor Max Tegmark, author of “Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”, was alarmed by the declaration’s lack of focus on AI safety, calling it a “huge step backwards”, said Politico.
What is Europe planning?
Europe has been at the forefront of shaping regulation of AI technologies, with critics often accusing the EU of going in “too heavily, to the detriment of innovation”, said CNBC. But now, led by France, it is aiming to be “part of the conversation around AI leadership and innovation that has so far been dominated by the US and China”.
It’s a sign that the bloc is perhaps “moving in the right direction”, though the “image has not entirely been changed” by declarations at the summit.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also been outspoken about the need for billions of euros of investment to empower the EU’s AI companies, rather than adding more restrictions, as Europe tries to play catchup with the US and China.
However, the “tension between safety and competitiveness” remains, with “growing concerns within the scientific community” that the conversations between governments and firms have “moved on from autonomy risks” of AI, said Time.
Can Europe compete on AI with the US and China?
The US and China certainly lead the way in AI development, but there is optimism in Europe that it can begin to compete in the race. However, businesses still view the continent as a place of “too much regulation”. It was the EU, after all, that, with its AI Act last year, implemented the “first major law in the world governing artificial intelligence”, said CNBC.
AI competitiveness is a “hefty challenge” for Europe, said Politico. The US is home to most of the world’s leading AI firms, while China’s recent massive investments in AI research and technology has made it a scientific powerhouse. There is no longer an argument that China produces “lower-quality” AI, Mathilde Velliet, a researcher at the Centre for Geopolitics of Technology at the French Institute for International Relations told Le Monde.
For Europe, there is still a strain between regulation and innovation. But it does have a strong potential for progress if it can find its way over that hurdle: it has “an economy of the same order of magnitude” as China and the US, Cédric Villani, a mathematician at Claude-Bernard Lyon-I University, told Le Monde. It just needs to “convince itself that it has every conceivable resource in terms of scientific and technical skills” to be competitive, and tap into a pool of skills “from which America has not hesitated to draw for decades”.