AI in EU

That was one of the few subjects that was more or less agreed on at the Politico AI and Tech 2025 summit. Regulations are needed to create innovative, safe and trusted products. However, creating high quality products is also time consuming and more costly. If a business only focusses on innovation, or profit above all, development will go much faster, but the safety guards will be less in place. Which basically means, in the long run, the products are less healthy for society, maybe even toxic or dangerous.

I do believe in tech products that reflect our European life style. Important pillars for European culture are amongst others: privacy, individual freedom of choice, high quality and truth. Europeans love making products that reflect these pillars and they should also be reflected in our online worlds.  

It has been bugging me for quite a few years now how easily public institutions incorporated tools from US tech companies. The evidence lies in the public procurement that had a tendency for tools made by these companies. I am happy to hear that there is a new wind blowing. 

It's good that the European Commission is setting out standards for both AI and online. I know the guidelines and regulations are a lot, maybe even too much, and that they need work. But it is good that we Europeans make a decision on how we want our online worlds to look like. 

During the summit an important point of discussion is how Europe must compete with US concerning the AI race. For a stable European economy, Europe has to up its game on work efficiency. AI is great way to make a business be more efficient. I would rather discuss to help people free up time to focus on the more important stuff in life, things only humans can do. For instance AI can help health care workers with the administrative burden so they have to time to talk to sick patients: a person who needs somebody to talk to, because they feel lost. Or AI can help us be more energie efficient so everybody has enough affordable electricity at home. 

Back to the summit. Some talked about a EU that should be totally independent from the dominant, and at the moment flaky, US and they advocated for setting up an elaborate AI infrastructure. While others think it is better to be strategic and Europe should pick its battles. Making a level playing field is going to be difficult if EU companies have to divide the much smaller investment over innovation and robust rail guards. They will not be able to go as fast due to the time consuming rail guards. 

Well, in my opinion, not at least without help from established and trusted companies or… with a little help from the European Commission. I am not heading towards funding, but more towards helping the SME establish itself. 

Let me elaborate with a stick and a carrot analogy. The stick is if you don’t do it according to our rules: You will get a fine. But maybe a carrot will also work. The carrot is if a company follows the in Europe grounded guidelines, it gets one or more stars, or something similar, basically it is recommended as ethical and trustworthy companies who adheres to European standards. You know, the way how nowadays food is rated so people can make more educated choices. Energie labels on our appliances is another example. Anyway, a system that will help a consumer, business or other organization make more educated choices. Another carrot is the European Commission could intensify helping out smaller companies by getting into into contact with established companies so they can figure out if there is a common ground and hopefully build trust amongst customers for the European product. 

During the summit we talked a lot about regulation in the sense of setting out guidelines and rules. Another great way to regulate is to educate, both adults as well as minors on the pro's and the con's of AI and online. 

Overall I think it comes down to: eating junkfood is not a problem, if you eat 95% of the time healthy food. This also goes for using digital tools.