Europe, which passed the first law in the world that should counter the risks brought by artificial intelligence, is considering closing the gap with the USA and China in the development of this technology that can shape the future of the global economy. daily lives of citizens. The EU Commission has launched a package of measures to support startups and domestic SMEs interested in artificial intelligence. These include establishing artificial intelligence “factories” and unlocking €4bn of public and private funding by 2027.
Europe’s delay
Of course, the road to the EU appears to be uphill. In 2022, investments in artificial intelligence in the United States were around 50 billion euros. The number of people in China reached 10 billion. Fundraising in Europe stalled at 5 billion. Germany, France and Italy have been at the forefront of asking Brussels not to limit the development of this technology in the EU with too strict rules. German Minister Robert Habeck said at the summit with the Italian and French governments in Rome last October: “Europe should not hide artificial intelligence.” “We have companies that are viable, strong and in many ways more capable than the tech giants (.. .) but we cannot wait 5 years to invest,” he warned.
artificial intelligence factories
With today’s initiative, the Commission is trying to address the issue of investments. A memo from Brussels reads about the establishment of AI factories aimed at encouraging “the acquisition, upgrade and operation of dedicated AI supercomputers to enable rapid machine learning and the training of large, general-purpose AI models.” These supercomputers will be available to “a wide range of public and private users, including startups and SMEs,” with the ultimate goal of “enabling the development of a range of emerging AI applications” based on general-purpose models such as alternatives to ChatGpt. For example.
Funds and consortia
On the investment front, the Commission will activate funding lines for productive AI through the Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes. “This package will create an overall additional public and private investment of around 4 billion euros by 2027,” Brussels assures. Other measures will relate to “education, training, qualification and retraining activities” and pressing for more “public and private investment”, including venture capital or equity support.
There is also the “GenAI4EU” initiative, which aims to support the development of new use cases and emerging applications in 14 European industrial ecosystems and the public sector. Application areas include robotics, healthcare, biotechnology, manufacturing, mobility, climate and virtual worlds. Finally, Brussels announced the establishment of two European digital infrastructure consortiums: the Language Technologies Alliance, which aims to address the lack of European linguistic data for AI educational solutions as well as develop a common European infrastructure in language technologies to support Europe’s linguistic infrastructure. diversity and cultural richness. “CitiVERSE” will apply the latest artificial intelligence tools to develop and improve local digital twins for smart communities, helping cities simulate and optimize processes from traffic management to waste management.
Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
