HIKMA SUMMIT
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There is much to say about the global race for Artificial Intelligence (AI) development and leadership, but one thing is certain: at this moment, the European Union (EU) is not at the forefront.

On February 10 and 11, the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit took place in Paris, launched by the French President Emmanuel Macron and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During these two days of meetings and different speeches Heads of State and Government, leaders of international organisations, CEOs, representatives of academia, ONGs, artists and members of civil society gathered to discuss three main objectives. First, finding means to massively develop AI technologies and uses. Second, understanding a way to leave behind nobody and preserve people’s freedom. Third, developing more environmentally friendly AI systems.

At the end of the Summit the EU decided to invest €200 billion to strengthen its position in AI development, the U.S. called itself out of the regulations that were decided, and 60 nations signed a shared declaration for sustainable AI production–though notably, the U.S. and U.K. didn’t sign.

These different outcomes demonstrate the diverse objectives of the Summit’s participants. The summit was decided, as reported before, by two different leaders, of two very distant countries and with diverse interests too. The leader Macron, stated his point of view at the beginning of the event, declaring: “This summit is not just the announcement of investments in France. It’s a wake-up call for our European strategy”. Indeed, the French leader has well clear in mind how much AI development is currently one of the most important sectors in which the EU should invest for its future security and economy. Recently, we had laggedbehind in the semiconductor sector that was clearly going to completely change everything, the EU should not make the same mistake. On the other hand, Prime Minister Modi, in representing (voluntarily or not) the Global South, focused more on the necessity of ensuring AI access for all.

The Real AI Competition: U.S. vs. China

The real competition in this revolutionary sector is primarily between the U.S. and China, as for many other things. Until recently, American dominance in AI was clear since the launch of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022. However, on January 20 of this year, China launched its own open source AI model, DeepSeek R1, which is also way less complicated and expensive than the western counterpart.

Even if the development of Artificial Intelligence is a global issue, it’s led just by two countries. So, the aim of the recent Summit was also to search for a way to create a more reasonable global competition in the sector. However, U.S. Vice President JD Vance made it clear that the U.S. remains reluctant to abandon its hands-off approach and to accept what it sees as “excessive regulation”, arguing that it could slow down AI innovation and its deployment across industries.

Regulation vs. Competitiveness

For a certain perspective, European competitiveness was put at risk on 1 August, 2024, when the Artificial Intelligence Act came into force. While the act aims to create harmonized AI rules across the Union–making AI development safer and more accountable–some argue that it has led to overregulation, suffocating the already slow European AI innovation.

While protecting the users from a dangerous AI development and possible correlated security issues are noble goals, there is an undeniable trade-off between regulation and economic growth. It is forecast that by 2030 AI will potentially give a contribution of $15.7tr to the global economy, boosting GDP by up to 26% for local economies. This economic gain will be driven by the fact that AI will increase automating productivity, new labour force and consumer demand for higher-quality AI products and services. The benefits that AI will be able to bring to our economies are already clear and all private and public investments made today will be crucial in shaping a prosperous future.

Europe’s Role in the AI Race

For all these reasons, Macron at the end of the Summit allocated €109 billion in AI-focused investments–more than a half of the EU’s total €200 billion commitment– alongside other global players and major companies. At the same time, he joined 59 other Heads of State and Governments (including China) in signing a declaration promoting “inclusive and sustainable” AI. However, the absence of U.S. and U.K. signatures outlined the ongoing international disagreements on AI regulation.

In many cases, an excessive bureaucracy can indeed slow down innovation, but protecting privacy and individual rights remains a core responsibility of democratic governments. The question now is whether this combination of massive investments and new regulations will be able to help the EU to achieve a more important role in the AI race.