Is the EU Doomed to Miss Out on AI?

0:00Today on the AI Daily Brief, is the EU losing out on AI? The AI Daily Brief is a daily podcast and video about the most important news and discussions in AI. To join the conversation, follow the Discord link in our show notes.

0:17Welcome back to the AI Daily Brief. This episode is a weekend episode, which means it is a long reads episode. And today we are reading an open letter called Europe Needs Regulatory Certainty on AI. One of the interesting questions that surrounds basically all AI regulation right now, is to what extent regulation will hamper innovation. Of course, this is not specific to artificial intelligence. This is always the question when it comes to the balance between regulation, rules of the road, safety, etc., and new innovation. The context for this conversation most recently, in the U.S. at least, has been around California's AI Bill SB 1047.

0:53That bill was passed by the California Assembly and now sits on Governor Gavin Newsom's desk for signature or veto. Newsom has recently given indications that he has big reservations about SB 1047. At Dreamforce in an interview with Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff, he said that he worried it would have a chilling effect on California's AI development. There is some evidence that he might not be wrong. Earlier this year, after the European Union passed its EUAI Act, Meta announced that it would not be releasing its multimodal llama model in the EU. Said spokesperson Kate McLaughlin, We will release a multimodal llama model over the coming months, but not in the EU due to the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment.

1:31A little before that, Apple had also announced that it would not be releasing its Apple Intelligence features in the European Union. Now, in that case, the concern wasn't necessarily the EUAI Act, but more specifically privacy concerns stemming from the Digital Markets Act. And despite this being announced months ago, it's clear that not all Apple customers got the memo. An author recently posted on the Apple discussion board, when will Apple Intelligence be available in Europe? I pre-ordered the iPhone 16 Pro Max, but I live in the Netherlands, so I'm wondering if we're getting the new iOS features too, like Apple Intelligence.

2:01Another user responds, no, for now at least you will not get Apple Intelligence. Whether Apple can or will ever make it available in the EU is something no one here will know. It appears that it would take alterations to the EU's Digital Markets Act, but that's uncertain since only Apple knows the full depth of the issue. The point being that this is no longer theoretical. European Union citizens are now actively being left behind when it comes to the newest implementations of artificial intelligence. This has prompted a set of companies led by Meta, but also including Pirelli, Ericsson, SAP, Spotify, the Tony Blair Institute, ThyssenKroup, Patrick Collison, the CEO of Stripe, Klarna, and more, to collaborate on this open letter.

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3:27That's nlwdailybrief. All one word. Today's episode is brought to you by Superintelligent, which is, of course, our platform that helps you learn how to use AI tools and perhaps even more importantly, gives you ideas on the best use cases that are actually going to help you achieve whatever it is you want to achieve. To recognize the end of summer and back to school slash back to work, we are running our best promotion ever. When you sign up for Super Intelligent, between now and the end of August, using code SOBAC, your first month will be 100 % free. The platform features over 600 fun, highly practical AI tutorials that get you using AI fast and with an eye to actually transforming how you get things done.

4:11We've just launched Super for Teams, so if you have a group of people at your company that want to figure out how to use AI together, I highly suggest you check it out. But for those of you who are using Super Intelligent as an individual, once again, if you sign up for Super Intelligent between now and the end of the month using code SOBAC, you will get your first month 100 % free. Go to besuper.ai and check it out today. The letter is called Europe Needs Regulatory Certainty on AI. Fragmented regulation means the EU risks missing out on the AI era. They write, We are a group of companies, researchers, and institutions integral to Europe and working to serve hundreds of millions of Europeans.

4:49We want to see Europe succeed and thrive, including in the field of cutting-edge AI research and technology. But the reality is Europe has become less competitive and less innovative compared to other regions, and it now risks falling further behind in the AI era due to inconsistent regulatory decision-making. In the absence of consistent rules, the EU is going to miss out on two cornerstones of AI innovation. The first are developments in open models that are made available without charge for everyone to use, modify, and build on, multiplying the benefits and spreading social and economic opportunity.

5:17The second are the latest multimodal models, which operate fluidly across text, images, and speech, and will enable the next leap forward in AI. The difference between text-only models and multimodal is like the difference between having only one sense and having all five of them. Frontier-level open models like LAMA, based on text or multimodal, can turbocharge productivity, drive scientific research, and add hundreds of billions of euros to the European economy. Public institutions and researchers are already using these models to speed up medical research and preserve languages, while established businesses and startups are getting access to tools they never could build or afford themselves.

5:48Without them, the development of AI will happen elsewhere, depriving Europeans of the technological advances enjoyed in the US, China, and India. Research estimates that generative AI could increase global GDP by 10 % over the coming decade, and EU citizens shouldn't be denied that growth. The EU's ability to compete with the rest of the world on AI and reap the benefits of open-source models rests on its single market and shared regulatory rulebook. If companies and institutions are going to invest tens of billions of euros to build generative AI for European citizens, they require clear rules consistently applied, enabling the use of European data.

6:20But in recent times, regulatory decision making has become fragmented and unpredictable, while interventions by the European Data Protection Authorities have created huge uncertainty about what kinds of data can be used to train AI models. This means the next generation of open-source AI models and products and services we build on them won't understand or reflect European knowledge, culture, or languages. The EU will also miss out on other innovations, like Meta's AI Assistant, which is on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of this year. Europe faces a choice that will impact the region for decades.

6:49It can choose to reassert the principle of harmonization enshrined in regulatory frameworks like the GDPR so that AI innovation happens here at the same scale and speed as elsewhere, or it can continue to reject progress, betray the ambitions of the single market, and watch as the rest of the world builds on technologies that Europeans will not have access too. We hope European policymakers and regulators see what is at stake if there is no change of course. Europe can't afford to miss out on the widespread benefits from responsibly built open AI technologies that will accelerate economic growth and unlock progress in scientific research.

7:19For that, we need harmonized, consistent, quick and clear decisions under EU data regulations that enable European data to be used in AI training for the benefit of Europeans. Decisive action is needed to help unlock the creativity, ingenuity, and entrepreneurialism that will ensure Europe's prosperity, growth, and technical leadership. Now, of course, there are going to be many opinions about this. There are probably many European citizens who don't mind being quote-unquote protected from AI. However, to me, this is a great reminder of one of the realities of technology, which is that in the vast majority of cases, a nation cannot ban a technology.

7:52It can only ban its citizens from accessing a technology. What we are seeing here is Europe actually starting to face the consequences of its policymaking decisions. One might argue that ultimately these are choices being made by AI companies, but even if that's true, they are choosing, and they are choosing to not include Europe in the future that they are helping shape. It is a fascinating and important debate, and one that I think is just heating up. I'm interested to know what you guys think. Use the comments on YouTube or Spotify to share. And as always, I appreciate you guys listening or watching.

8:24Hope you're having a great weekend, and until next time, peace.

8:33Thank you.