The USA unveiled a plan to dominate artificial intelligence. Where is Europe?

The United States of America has unveiled a strategic document titled AI Action Plan, aiming to secure “unshakeable technological superiority” for the country in the field of artificial intelligence. The plan comes at a time when the rivalry with China for AI dominance is being compared to a new Cold War. It’s not just about technological advancement, but a battle of values, economic systems, and global influence, where the winner can set the rules for the rest of the world. The plan comprehensively addresses everything from bureaucracy to energy and education.

AI as the New Cold War

The fight for global primacy in artificial intelligence is driven by the vision of achieving so-called Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) – a system capable of solving any problem and autonomously developing new technologies. The country that reaches this milestone first will gain a strategic advantage that the rest of the world might no longer be able to catch up with. For this very reason, the American government approaches AI as a key battlefield and sees China as its main rival. The entire struggle is thus framed as a conflict between democracy and a totalitarian regime.

Key Points of the American AI Action Plan

The American plan is built upon several strategic pillars that are collectively designed to ensure rapid and sustainable AI development in line with American interests.

• Bureaucracy Reduction: The plan proposes removing bureaucratic obstacles that hinder innovation. Federal funding is primarily directed to states that implement the fewest regulations for AI development, which aims to incentivize the creation of a freer environment for companies and research.
• Promoting American Values: AI models are intended to actively disseminate “American values,” especially freedom of speech. The document even suggests adjusting recommendations for companies so that AI models do not deal with ideologically sensitive topics such as disinformation, diversity, or climate change, with the aim of creating allegedly “objective AI.”
• Open Source Software: Instead of closing off technologies, the plan relies on open source. The idea is simple: if American open-source models become the global standard, American values and influence will spread along with them.
• Testing “Sandboxes”: To accelerate AI adoption in key sectors such as healthcare or law, the plan includes establishing testing environments (sandboxes). In these, companies will be able to test new AI systems in real operation under the supervision of state authorities (e.g., FDA), but without the threat of high fines and legal complications.
• Worker Support: In response to concerns about job losses, the plan introduces a “worker-first” approach, emphasizing education, reskilling, and acquiring new skills. Tax incentives are proposed for AI-focused training courses.
• Energy and Chip Manufacturing: The plan identifies energy as the biggest limit to AI development. It therefore calls for massive modernization of power plants, construction of data centers, and, most importantly, the relocation of chip manufacturing to the USA to reduce strategic dependence on Taiwan.
• Security and Export Control: The strategy also includes strengthening cybersecurity, defending against deepfake videos, and strict control over the export of key technologies and chips to prevent their leakage into the hands of rivals.
• Clean Datasets: The plan calls for the creation of massive, high-quality, and legally acquired datasets for scientific purposes. This is intended to increase trust in AI and provide researchers with a reliable foundation for further innovation.
• AI Control and Interpretability: The American government has tasked the DARPA agency with developing technologies that will allow for a better understanding of why AI makes the decisions it does. The goal is to eliminate the “black box” problem in systems that make decisions regarding health or safety.

Where is Europe in all of this?

While the United States and China have clearly defined and ambitious plans to dominate the future with AI, Europe appears to be lagging. Although the EU has adopted the regulatory framework of the EU AI Act, it lacks a comparably strong vision and drive that would keep it in the global race. The European approach is perceived as cautious and primarily focused on risk control, which may hinder innovation compared to the aggressive pace of the USA and China. The absence of a strong European leader or a groundbreaking project, such as France’s Mistral AI on a broader scale, raises questions about the continent’s future competitiveness.

America’s AI Action Plan is undoubtedly a strong and comprehensive strategy with the potential to succeed. At the same time, however, it carries risks, especially in its push for deregulation. For Europe, however, the greatest risk is precisely the absence of a similarly ambitious plan.

Should Europe more actively engage in the AI race?