PARIS (Reuters) – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered a speech on the European Union’s AI aims at the Paris AI Summit on Tuesday.
Below are some key quotes from her speech:
“This summit is on action, and that is exactly what we need right now. The time has come for us to formulate a vision of where we want AI to take us as a society and as humanity, and then we need to act and accelerate Europe in getting there.”
“We want Europe to be one of the leading AI continents, and this means embracing a way of life where AI is everywhere.”
“Too often I hear that Europe is late to the race where the United States or China have already gotten ahead. I disagree, because the AI race is far from being over. We’re only at the beginning. The frontier is constantly moving. Global leadership is still up for grabs.”
“Too often I have heard that we should replicate what others are doing and run after their strengths. I think that instead, we should invest in what we can do best and build our own strengths here in Europe. Our own strengths are our science and technology mastery that we have given to the world … There’s a distinct European brand of AI. It is already driving innovation and adaptation, and it is picking up speed.”
“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 startups and our best scientists, so they can forge the AI we need. They can test their models, they can train their models on our supercomputers.”
“We want to replicate the success story of CERN in Geneva. As you all know, CERN holds the largest particle accelerator in the world, and it allows the best and the brightest minds in the world to work together. And we want the same to happen in our AI Gigafactory.”
“AI needs competition, but AI also needs collaboration, and AI needs the confidence of the people, and has to be safe.”
“I know that we have to make it easier, and we have to cut red tape, and we will.”
“We aim to mobilize a total of 200 billion euros ($206.38 billion) for AI investment in Europe.”
“AI can be a gift to humanity, but we must make sure that its benefits are widespread and that its benefits are accessible to all.”
“We want AI to be a force for good. We want an AI where everyone collaborates and everyone benefits. This is our path. This is our European path.”
($1 = 0.9691 euros)
(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Susan Fenton)
