Right diagnosis, now the delivery

In her State of the Union speech, President von der Leyen identified the right diagnosis for how to keep the EU in the AI race, with the right partners, and the right priorities. The question is whether we can move at the speed and decisiveness she calls for.

It was good to see that the speech took the recent news about frontier AI seriously, and that she wants to work with middle powers like Canada and the UK on evaluation, verification, and AI security, and on maintaining access to frontier models. This is needed whether or not AI companies end up pacing self-improving models. Strengthening this coalition will be a key focus of Arq’s work in the coming months, not least to develop the much-needed leverage these powers can exert in the AI supply chain to not be shut out.

Alongside securing access to frontier AI capabilities, Europe needs to create value in the sectors where it is already strong: healthcare, industry, and defence. These are sectors where it has access to crucial data and where Europe can claim a key global role. Von der Leyen was right to say that Europe’s industrial data is an asset, but so far, efforts to harness it have been underwhelming.

The President highlighted that ‘in today’s economy, speed is of the essence’, and in particular that we need to speed up our permitting systems and grid connections. Arq has argued in its proposals for the Cloud and AI Development Act that fast permits do little without fast access to power. The same need to speed up applies to European research. We have to make it easier for scientists to access grants, instead of letting them wade through bureaucracy, and we have to make sure startups get faster access to the financing they need. The next generation of startups she praised in her speech may not survive a process built for a slower economy.

Overall, the AI content of the State of the Union was very strong, but delivering on its promises demands a gear change in our action.