“You have already lost the opportunity to be a pioneer”

The president of European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagardewarned this Monday of the risk to the prosperity of European citizens that would mean stopping the spread of AI, after the European Union has already missed the opportunity to be a pioneer of this technology, in a race led by the United States and China.

“We need to eliminate all the obstacles that prevent us from embracing this transformation,” claimed the Frenchwoman during her speech at a forum organized in Bratislava (Slovakia) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), where it has warned that, if obstacles to the dissemination of this technology are not eliminated, there is a risk of “delaying the prosperity of all Europeans in the coming decades.”

In this way, the president of the ECB continues to insist on the need for the EU to take action and urgently undertake to eliminate barriers and advance the integration of the internal marketas well as streamlining its decision model and simplifying procedures. “We must overcome a set of old barriers that have prevented us from being pioneers in the past,” he lamented, pointing out that, with the United States and China at the helm, “Europe has already lost the opportunity to be a pioneer in AI.”

However, for France, Europe can still emerge as a solid second driver if it acts decisively, which means not just overcoming the leading AI models, but but for implementing AI widelyfocusing on its rapid adoption and intelligent use of existing AI technologies in various sectors. However, in this sense, he has warned that if the EU continues to maintain high energy costs, with Fragmented regulations and capital markets If they fail to integrate and channel long-term funding, AI will spread more slowly.

Likewise, Lagarde has also urged to bet on diversification in the AI ​​supply chain, maintaining minimum capabilities internal in key aspects, such as chip-based computing capacity and data centers, to avoid aggravating a strategic dependence on technologies outside Europe. “This time, the consequences go beyond losing the race in AI models“, he warned, since falling behind again would imply a greater loss of competitiveness in many sectors and industries.