Europe is lagging behind America in the AI arms race – and that’s a good thing

WHEN IT COMES TO MAN VS MACHINES, SERGE SHAROFF KNOWS WHICH ONE WE SHOULD PICK

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The world is gripped by the Al arms race. Every day brings a new headline: “How to stop Al replacing your job”; “How to face up to dark data in the AI boom”; “Is DeepSeek AI’s Sputnik moment?”

But as we all look, intently, to the US and China, we seem to be ignoring Europe. The continent is too rarely part of the conversation, either ignored or castigated for what's been branded a suffocating approach, leaden with red tape. Many of us ensconced in AI, however (I am the professor of language technology at the University of Leeds) take the view that Europe - which prioritises responsibility and equality over sheer power might be making the right decision.

While OpenAI has recently slashed the time spent testing its most powerful models operating in the US and the UK, the EU has put ethics, safety and accountability at the heart of its approach. The bloc's AI Act was the world's first legal framework for AI. It's been designed with clear boundaries in place to ensure responsible development, and categorises AI by risk; banning those types deemed unacceptable and tightly regulating high-risk applications, such as those in healthcare, education and law enforcement.