In the end, all it took for Europe to move was for Donald Trump to shake the coconut tree. On Tuesday, at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, jointly organised by France and India, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that an additional €50bn would be made available.
“Additional” because on Monday, a coalition called the “AI Champions” initiative, bringing together 80 players not necessarily from the technology sector--such as Heineken, Carrefour and BNP Paribas--announced the mobilisation of €150bn.
To support this vision, a report by the General Catalyst investment fund titled “An ambitious programme for European AI,” proposes a strategic plan to position Europe as a leader in the field of artificial intelligence. The report highlights the need to coordinate efforts across technology, industry and policy sectors, mobilising talent and capital to accelerate the adoption of AI by Europe’s global industry leaders. It also highlights the importance of modernising critical infrastructure and developing a competitive European technology ecosystem.
“By seizing this opportunity, working with greater determination and embracing radical collaboration, Europe can demonstrate its ability to turn ambition into concrete results, strengthen its position on the global stage and shape a future where technology meets the aspirations of its citizens. We are looking to partner with all those who share this vision and want to help make it a reality," said Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, managing director of the General Catalyst (GC) investment fund.
, and takes stock of all the business sectors that will be affected and would benefit from embracing this revolution.
On Tuesday, the president of the European Commission announced that, following the launch of the AI Factories--one of the first --she plans to launch AI Gigafactories. These are “very large data and computing infrastructure, to train very large models. We want to replicate the success story of the Cern laboratory in Geneva,” said von der Leyen.
“CERN hosts the largest particle accelerator in the world. And it allows the best and the brightest minds in the world to work together. We want the same to happen in our AI Gigafactories. We provide the infrastructure for large computational power. Researchers, entrepreneurs and investors will be able to join forces. Talents of the world are welcome. Industries will be able to collaborate and federate their data. We are creating the safe space for them – like the European health data space. Because AI needs competition but also collaboration. And AI needs the confidence of people and has to be safe.”
“This is the --to provide for one single set of safety rules across the European Union--450m people--instead of 27 different national regulations. And safety is in the interest of business,” she said.
“Today, I can announce with our InvestAI initiative that we can top up by €50bn. Thereby we aim to mobilise a total of €200bn for AI investments in Europe. We will have a focus on industrial and mission-critical applications. It will be the largest public-private partnership in the world for the development of trustworthy AI,” von der Leyen declared in Paris.
Finally, the president of the European Commission added, “we fully support the AI Foundation that is being launched today. AI can be a gift to humanity. But we must make sure that benefits are widespread and accessible to all. We want AI to be a force for good. We want an AI where everyone collaborates and everyone benefits. That is our path--our European way.”
The €200bn is a response to the US president’s Stargate project, which announced $500bn of investment in AI-related infrastructure.
This article was originally published in .