Following the successful launch of ChatGPT around two years ago, most public rhetoric around artificial intelligence and its increasing presence in daily life has been filled with a marked sense of fear. And perhaps rightly so.

 Generative AI has had a hugely destabilising effect on news security and the spread of misinformation, rendered even more notable in a year where nearly half the world has engaged in an election. For voters from the US to India, the UK to Mexico, 2024 has been a year where deepfake media, polarising algorithms and other products of artificial intelligence have assumed a profound role in shaping their understanding of the world around them.

 This is largely why the EU recently introduced its AI Act – the first piece of comprehensive AI law in the world, which ensures that AI systems are ‘safe, transparent… and traceable’, and overseen by humans so as to ‘prevent harmful outcomes’. The act classifies AI systems from 'unacceptable' to 'minimal' risk, details transparency requirements and punitive fines, and outright prohibits any systems that are seen to 'rank' people by personal characteristics, or use real-time face recognition. 

 But according to some industry experts, the EU’s decision to heavily regulate exploration into AI technology is a shot in the foot, solidifying their place as non-competitors in AI innovation, and denying themselves the opportunity to invest and lead in an exceedingly relevant and financially beneficial industry.

 This was the verdict of the panel of expert guests at ‘The Geopolitics of Artificial Intelligence’ – a conference held at the Euro-Gulf Information Centre in Rome on Wednesday. The EGIC is a think-tank headquartered in Italy, which seeks to monitor, encourage and develop the relationship between Europe and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The talk was based on, and borrowed the translated title of, a new book by acclaimed Italian author and policy expert Alessandro Aresu - La Geopolitica dell'Intelligenza Artificiale (Feltrinelli, 2024). Aresu has served as an advisor for both Mario Draghi and Giorgia Meloni, and, in his book, uses his wealth of experience to illustrate both where AI has come from and where it is going.

 The industry of artificial intelligence is characterised both in Aresu’s book and the EGIC’s conference as a key battleground between the United States and China; a battleground in which, according to EGIC’s experts, the EU currently cannot compete due to its profound fear of exploring and investing in the unregulated. The EGIC’s guests believe the EU has not woken up to the reality of artificial intelligence as the future of humanity, and resultingly is still focussed on the ‘old economy’ and investing in traditional sectors like the automotive one.

 In our ‘new economy’, data is the new oil, and digital systems are their new consumers. In this, EGIC’s guests reckon the EU can learn a lesson from the Gulf Cooperation Council, all of whose countries have recently pumped money into AI projects, simultaneously reducing dependence on oil revenue and also, in particular, establishing themselves as key producers of semi-conductors – an essential material for the industry.

 The GCC, like America or China, is also coming to recognise the importance of the industry as a mass-employer (think Silicon Valley), and is keen to keep up-and-coming tech talent within their borders. In the EU, investment into the sector is poor, and thus young aspiring scientists, whose innovations could bring valuable capital into the Union, are more likely to leave for America or other countries with higher funding.  

 In Mario Draghi’s recent report on EU competitiveness, the former Italian Prime Minister called out the Union’s adversity to investing in the future of AI : ‘we need to shift our orientation from trying to restrain this technology to understanding how to benefit from it’. The legislation introduced by the AI Act may be grounded on valid fears, but the implementation of heavy restraints on what companies can explore fosters a culture of fear, instead of interest, around the potential of new digital technologies.

 According to the panellists at the EGIC, it is too late for the EU to become global innovators in artificial intelligence. That ship has sailed, with the US and China at the helm. However, a reconsidering of the excessive legislative measures in place to ‘protect’ EU citizens from AI could allow the Union to become at least a player in the rising industry. The expert guests see Europe as a place abundant with scientific talent and potential, but an apprehensive attitude towards new technology, and a preference for traditional investment strategy, thwarts prospective financial and professional growth within the Union.

 When asked about the apocalyptic imagery often associated with the rise of AI – robots taking over or the end of human creativity – one panellist quickly sought to reassure the audience.  Whilst fears of the unknown are always valid, it is humans that are driving this revolution, not AI. ‘We don’t need to worry about losing control’. We just need to wake up to this new way of life.

 dabj