Gaping investment gap
USA lags far behind EU in AI investments
29.05.2024, 08:21 a.m.
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The European Union is cautious when it comes to artificial intelligence – at least when it comes to investments. This is the result of an evaluation by the European Court of Auditors. The Union is doing very poorly, especially compared to China and the USA.
According to the European Court of Auditors, the EU has not been able to keep up with the world’s leading players in terms of investments in artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years. “The EU’s AI investments increased steadily between 2018 and 2020,” says a report by the Luxembourg authority. Nevertheless, the AI investment gap between the US and the EU, which affects both the public and private sectors, is estimated to have more than doubled during this period. “The EU is more than ten billion euros behind,” says the Court of Auditors. Government agencies and private companies have therefore invested significantly more money in the US.
Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also showed that the EU was also worse off than the USA and China in terms of venture capital investments in AI in 2021 and 2022, the Court of Auditors said. AI investments from the EU budget have increased, according to the information. A spokesperson for the EU Commission stressed, for example, that more than one billion euros per year are already being invested in AI research projects. However, with regard to the union’s total public and private investments in AI, EU funds only account for a small part, according to the Court of Auditors.
Investment targets unchanged since 2018
According to the Court of Auditors, a lack of ambition in the investment targets “contradicts the goal of building a globally competitive AI ecosystem”. The EU’s investment targets have remained unchanged since 2018 and are therefore outdated. While the union had aimed for public and private investments in AI of 20 billion euros for the entire period from 2018 to 2020, according to the authority, such a contribution was planned every year for the following ten years.
The Court of Auditors considers it important to invest money in artificial intelligence. “Large and targeted investments in AI will have a decisive impact on economic growth in the EU in the coming years,” stressed the member of the Court of Auditors responsible for the audit, Mihails Kozlovs.
The proportion of companies using AI varies greatly depending on the member state. “France and Germany have announced the largest public AI investments, while four countries still do not have AI strategies,” the Court of Auditors explained. It is important to agree with the member states how their investments will contribute to achieving EU goals.