European powers are racing to catch up with the United States in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence, a domain where America has long held a stranglehold. The continent's push for self-sufficiency is fueled by strained ties with Washington and growing concerns that Europe's reliance on American-made AI could become a liability.
As the US continues to dominate the AI landscape, from processor design to data center capacity, European nations are scrambling to develop their own cutting-edge technology. They're investing heavily in research initiatives and partnerships with top academic institutions, with some countries committing hundreds of millions of dollars to minimizing their reliance on foreign AI suppliers.
However, experts warn that simply buying into US-made AI solutions won't be enough. "We have been too gullible to the narrative that innovation is done in the US," says Rosaria Taddeo, a professor of digital ethics and defense technologies at Oxford University. "That's a dangerous narrative." European researchers are instead pursuing alternative methods for developing competitive products built around imaginative model design.
One key advantage Europe holds over its American rivals is a willingness to develop AI technology openly and transparently. By publishing models for anyone to use or modify, breakthroughs achieved by European labs can compound as they're further refined by collaborators. Wolfgang Nejdl, professor of computer science at Germany's Leibniz UniversitΓ€t Hannover, believes that this approach can help Europe catch up with the US in AI.
But with the White House taking a lukewarm stance on European leadership and some allies of US President Donald Trump displaying a nakedly hostile attitude towards the continent, those efforts to innovate and become self-sufficient have taken on new urgency. "The geopolitical situation has changed the way we should interpret sovereignty," Taddeo says. "This technology is an infrastructureβand an infrastructure we do not produce."
As the US continues to dominate the AI landscape, from processor design to data center capacity, European nations are scrambling to develop their own cutting-edge technology. They're investing heavily in research initiatives and partnerships with top academic institutions, with some countries committing hundreds of millions of dollars to minimizing their reliance on foreign AI suppliers.
However, experts warn that simply buying into US-made AI solutions won't be enough. "We have been too gullible to the narrative that innovation is done in the US," says Rosaria Taddeo, a professor of digital ethics and defense technologies at Oxford University. "That's a dangerous narrative." European researchers are instead pursuing alternative methods for developing competitive products built around imaginative model design.
One key advantage Europe holds over its American rivals is a willingness to develop AI technology openly and transparently. By publishing models for anyone to use or modify, breakthroughs achieved by European labs can compound as they're further refined by collaborators. Wolfgang Nejdl, professor of computer science at Germany's Leibniz UniversitΓ€t Hannover, believes that this approach can help Europe catch up with the US in AI.
But with the White House taking a lukewarm stance on European leadership and some allies of US President Donald Trump displaying a nakedly hostile attitude towards the continent, those efforts to innovate and become self-sufficient have taken on new urgency. "The geopolitical situation has changed the way we should interpret sovereignty," Taddeo says. "This technology is an infrastructureβand an infrastructure we do not produce."