The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen addressed the AI safety summit in Paris on Tuesday, vowing to substantially increase the EU’s investment into AI by €200 billion.
France is hosting the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit on Monday and Tuesday. It reunites institutional and political leaders, CEOs, academics, NGOs, artists and members of civil society. It comes at a time when the EU is using the new legislative term to boost its competitiveness, notably in AI.
"Too often, I hear that Europe is late to the race – while the US and China have already gotten ahead. I disagree. Because the AI race is far from over," von der Leyen stated.
In just over a year, three new generations of extremely powerful AI models have been released, while others expect models that will approach human reasoning within a year's time – this is why the AI safety summit is more about action than previous years, von der Leyen continued.
Using the occasion to launch the EU's AI plan, she vowed that the EU will embark on the "largest public-private partnership in the world" for the development of "trustworthy" AI. Around €200 billion in AI investments will be mobilised for this.
"First, we want to accelerate innovation. Europe has some of the world's fastest public supercomputers. We are now putting them at the service of our best start-ups and scientists, so they can forge the AI we need," she said. The EU will invest €10 billion in its "record" new 12 AI factories, which have been set up in a few months.
The Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, France. Credit: EU
The EU chief welcomed the European AI Champions Initiative that has pledged €150 billion from providers, investors and industry. The champions initiatives brings together 60 leading European companies in both industry and technology, notably Spotify, Airbus, L'Oréal, Mercedes, Siemens, Saab and more.
This sum was topped up by the launch of the EU’s InvestAI initiative, which has pledged an extra €50 billion. This includes a new European fund of €20 billion for AI gigafactories. The investment will provide the EU with greater computational power to support the development of large AI models.
Von der Leyen invoked the success story of the CERN laboratory in Geneva to be replicated with the new gigafactories. CERN hosts the largest particle accelerator in the world, which 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."
Finally, the EU also launched the AI Foundation for partners in the Global South. "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," von der Leyen concluded.
