With its plan for a “European AI continent”, the EU Commission wants to catch up with other AI locations around the world: In terms of cloud infrastructure, Europe is currently equipped with three times fewer data centers than the USA, according to Commission circles. Corresponding capacities should therefore be created throughout Europe.
The Commission wants to boost the development of AI in the EU with up to 200 billion euros. Of this, 20 billion euros are to be made available for up to five new “AI Gigafactories”. However, it is unclear how much of this will actually be provided from EU funds in the end: as is so often the case, the Commission is aiming for a mixture of public and private funding.
Tripling AI capacities
The Commission wants to triple AI capacities in data centers over the next five to seven years. Particular attention is to be paid to energy efficiency. Access to high-quality data, for example from European data rooms, is also to be facilitated.
“Artificial intelligence is the key to making Europe more competitive, secure and technologically sovereign,” says Henna Virkkunen, Vice-President of the European Commission. “The global race for AI is not over yet.” That is why the EU Commission wants to act now.
One goal: to develop competitive large-scale language models in Europe. The AI gigafactories should nevertheless be open to all users on fair terms, which the EU Commission sees as a major difference to the large-scale projects in other countries around the world, such as the USA or China.
For now, however, this is still a declaration of intent; the further modalities are not to be clarified until the end of the year with the “Cloud and AI Development Act”. Until then, the EU Commission wants to use consultations to find out how potential interested parties view the Commission’s ideas.
As a further building block on the road to the AI continent, the Commission wants to simplify the implementation of the AI Act. What exactly this should mean is unclear for now. This could also consist of simpler approval processes for data centers or assistance with the interpretation of the AI Act, according to Commission officials –. This will also depend on the input received during the upcoming consultations.
The Commission has identified a further problem, which it considers to be significant, in that relevant economic sectors in the EU have so far lagged behind in the adaptation of AI developments. An application strategy for AI is intended to provide assistance here. In addition, training for employees and return assistance for AI specialists from non-EU countries as well as immigration facilitation for highly specialized third-country nationals are to be addressed.
“Necessary investment”
The business community generally welcomes the plan. The German Digital Industry Association (BVDW) sees improved access to data as the way to more AI development and application: “This is the only way to train artificial intelligence with high-quality data,” it said in a statement. In addition, the AI Act must be consistently pursued and implemented as a risk-based regulation and must not be changed.
For the IT association Bitkom, Susanne Dehmel criticized the fact that the intentions are still lacking in concrete terms in many areas, but welcomed the plan as a whole. “The planned 20 billion euros are a necessary investment to at least reduce the European backlog in computing power, which is crucial for AI, but they will not be sufficient considering the investment sums in other countries.” In addition to infrastructure, the simplification of regulations is particularly crucial for the success of AI in the EU.
(dmk)
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This article was originally published in
German.
It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.
