Resilience 2.0: EU Commission wants to drive forward European AI base models

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to boost the economy "cleanly and digitally" with technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI). "European AI is crucial for our independence", emphasized the CDU politician in her State of the Union speech in the EU Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. The 66-year-old was confident that the technology would "make an important contribution to the energy supply of our industry and our society". This applies to many areas – "from healthcare to defense".

The EU will "initially concentrate on the most important foundations", explained von der Leyen. This applies, for example, to legal acts such as the AI Act, the development of cloud and AI infrastructures beyond OpenAI, Google or Anthropic and the establishment of real-world laboratories for quantum technology. "We are investing heavily in European AI gigafactories," emphasized the President. These support "our innovative start-ups as they develop, train and use their next-generation AI models". Heads of the "biggest European tech champions" supported this line.

The Commission is a little more specific in a strategy paper for "Resilience 2.0" published on Tuesday. The aim of this initiative is to enable the EU to "stand its ground in times of turbulence and uncertainty". In doing so, the Commission wants to facilitate work on "the most advanced European basic AI models". By building strategic autonomy in key areas of AI research, it plans to ensure that the "disruptive power" of technology becomes "an engine for prosperity, inclusion, security and democratic trust".

Big tech tsunami floods families

With this project, the Commission is aiming to avoid dependence on global technology players such as the USA and China. The EU should develop an AI approach based on its fundamental values such as ethics, transparency and data protection. The promotion of its own models is essential for this. It is therefore necessary to invest in large-scale AI infrastructures and data resources. This would also decisively strengthen the competitiveness of European industry.

In her speech, von der Leyen was also concerned about "the effects of allowing our children unrestricted access to social media". Many parents feared, for example, "algorithms that exploit children's weaknesses to make them addicted". All too often, mothers and fathers felt "that they could not cope with the big tech tsunami that is flooding their families". The President was firmly convinced "that parents should raise our children. And not algorithms." A group of experts will soon be set up to explore whether a ban on social media for children and young people could be useful.

(vbr)