On Monday 30 October, Italy’s Economy and Competitiveness Minister Adolfo Urso, Germany’s Robert Habeck and France’s Bruno Le Maire called on the European Union to place artificial intelligence (AI) at the heart of its industrial strategy.
“We have entered a new technological revolution and we need to approach it with (...) new approaches and new tools”, said Mr Urso, host of the trilateral meeting in Rome, noting a “unity of commitment” on artificial intelligence between the three countries. For Mr Habeck, the regulations governing AI, currently being negotiated at European (see EUROPE 13279/18) and international (see other news) levels, must be “innovation-friendly” and “risk-based”.
Mr Le Maire noted that at €5 billion a year, private investment in AI in the EU was half that in China and ten times less than in the US. He felt that “before thinking in terms of ‘regulation’, Europe must first think in terms of ‘innovation’”.
In their joint statement, the ministers support the “pan-European efforts underway to create a consortium dedicated to AI in Europe in order to develop language technologies and foundation models through facilitated access to computing capacity, data spaces, advanced skills and test equipment”. It is “essential”, they add, that EU legislation limits bureaucracy and cuts red tape. And to advocate the contribution of “venture capital” to provide the financing that businesses need.
Mr Le Maire also spoke of the need to build “trade reciprocity” with the EU’s major economic partners and to “establish a European preference” for AI.
In June, the first trilateral ministerial meeting was devoted to critical raw materials. The next meeting will take place in Paris in January 2024.
See the joint press release: https://aeur.eu/f/9bo (in French) (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)