Fair points, but I think that it would not be too costly for Europe to stay not too far behind in the race, and should also invest in general-purpose AI systems:
- In the short run by deploying open-source models on sovereign infra - that's not as costly as doing the whole training
- by getting frontier labs to install data centers in Europe
I think that narrow ai has economic benefits, but won't scale as much as GPAI models
These are very good points - there is nothing to say against Europe developing our own frontier models but the real value for Europe is integrating AI into sectors where we are already strong - like manufacturing - before someone else disrupts these markets with self-learning AI systems. My own Substack post on this topic is a good extenstion of your thinking: https://danielflorian.substack.com/p/europe-needs-an-industrial-policy
Part of this bet is already written into law. Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1732 amended Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 to define an AI factory and to have the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking acquire and own AI-optimised supercomputers, with the Union contribution covering up to 50 percent of acquisition costs and up to 50 percent of operating costs. The amended Article 9 obliges each hosting entity to run a one-stop shop for users including start-ups and smaller firms, and access conditions must include dedicated access for them. The instrument buys compute, not applications, so whether narrower European products follow from cheaper training capacity remains untested.
Fair points, but I think that it would not be too costly for Europe to stay not too far behind in the race, and should also invest in general-purpose AI systems:
- In the short run by deploying open-source models on sovereign infra - that's not as costly as doing the whole training
- by getting frontier labs to install data centers in Europe
I think that narrow ai has economic benefits, but won't scale as much as GPAI models
These are very good points - there is nothing to say against Europe developing our own frontier models but the real value for Europe is integrating AI into sectors where we are already strong - like manufacturing - before someone else disrupts these markets with self-learning AI systems. My own Substack post on this topic is a good extenstion of your thinking: https://danielflorian.substack.com/p/europe-needs-an-industrial-policy
Part of this bet is already written into law. Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1732 amended Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 to define an AI factory and to have the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking acquire and own AI-optimised supercomputers, with the Union contribution covering up to 50 percent of acquisition costs and up to 50 percent of operating costs. The amended Article 9 obliges each hosting entity to run a one-stop shop for users including start-ups and smaller firms, and access conditions must include dedicated access for them. The instrument buys compute, not applications, so whether narrower European products follow from cheaper training capacity remains untested.