A guarantee of Europe’s future competitiveness, artificial intelligence is in the crosshairs of the European Court of Auditors, which is questioning its means.
Because its strategic autonomy and its industrial policy depend on it, the European Union has understood that the digital transition would not happen without artificial intelligence. Having said that, where is it globally? The European Court of Auditors has delivered a first observation and points out the biggest problem with the development of AI in the area: that of financing.
Europe would invest half as much money in AI as the United States
For the European Court of Auditors, Europe is still lagging behind on aspects such as financing. We would indeed invest half as much in artificial intelligence on the Old Continent as in the United States. Add to that the context: only 8% (less than one in ten) of businesses in the EU were using AI in 2021.
This overall finding hides profound differences between Member States. In too many countries (Czech Republic, Greece, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania), less than one in 20 companies use AI. Denmark (24%), Portugal (17%) and Finland (16%) are good students.
” The stakes for EU competitiveness are too high to afford to miss the boat explains the member of the Court of Auditors of the EU, Mihails Kozlovs. The institution will thus carry out an audit to identify deficiencies and points to be corrected. ” With this audit, we want to know if the efforts made are sufficient to prevent Europe from missing the train of this major technological revolution. “, adds the Latvian.
An ambition as a world leader that remains to be proven
The European Union plans to devote 10 billion euros to AI in its current budget which runs from 2014 to 2027. Other additional resources will be earmarked for innovation, research and digital transformation. The InvestEU Fund will bring together private and public funds to present an envelope of 6.6 billion euros.
The EU’s goal remains to increase investment in AI to €20 billion per year over the next ten years. The whole point of the Court of Auditors’ audit lies in its ability to verify whether the conditions are met for the EU to really be able to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence.
In 2018, the European Commission adopted an EU-level plan around AI, with the objective of making the Union the world’s leading hub for the development and then the deployment of cutting-edge artificial intelligence. , where safety and ethics would be the watchwords. For now, everything remains to be done.
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