When I was growing up, which isn't that long ago, the world's relevant economies were all located in the West apart from Japan and maybe Australia, which were 'west' anyway in terms of their geopolitical stance.
No country in the Middle East/Arab Peninsula was even remotely on anyone's radar. India was a lot smaller in terms of its demography and no one was talking about it. China was still in tatters, and only known for copying stuff.
Fast-forward a couple of decades, all major European economies are struggling, but meanwhile Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar are on the rise, India is a country we now have to talk about and China is still absolutely copying others, but they're also creating stuff and innovating.
Then there are countries that people mention, Nigeria springs to mind. If you told any of my teachers 20 years ago that Nigeria would be a relevant player today, they'd have all laughed.
Whether I like it or not (I mostly do, tbh), I'm a European citizen, and a European Union citizen. It's what my passport says.
There are a couple of things I know a bit about, chief among which is probably the world of cars.
When it comes to cars, European automakers are no longer European, for the most part, and if they are, they're lagging behind.
This is also (but only) due to the fact that the EU is slow, clumsy, it overregulates, overreaches and wastes time asking questions no one else is asking, not because they're dumber, but because they're smarter.
Like somebody who gets given free food at a marketing event and wastes time wondering whether the company that's comping that free food is adhering to all relevant regulations when it comes to trivial stuff like, say, buying glasses in batch. Or plates.
Tech companies want to sell their products in Europe, but wouldn't in a million years develop their products here, because they know they'd be facing more taxes, more regulation and more hurdles than necessary.
As a result, the EU always, always, always shows up late to any party.
But I wonder, is that a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to AI?
On the one hand, too many companies have clearly easy and fast access to too much data, and they don’t report to anybody (with exceptions), and when they do, it’s not because of ‘privacy’ issues.
At the same time, people seem to be more or less happy with oversharing info with this big tech companies.
And yes, it does stifle innovation. As the old adage goes, “The US innovates, China copies, the EU regulates”.
The first part of this statement is still true, the second part maybe also true but only partially, but the third part is definitely 100 percent true.
But there’s a reason why.
The EU doesn't attract talent, in fact talent flees from here. If you're a developer or software engineer, for example, you know full well this isn't your place. There's no Xiaomi, no Waymo, no Tesla, no Google, no Apple, no Nvidia here.
With crypto, things are slightly different. One of the few positive side effects of the ongoing war 'in Europe' is European countries are waking up to the harsh, but liberating, reality that they can override the EU.
Contrary to what we've told all our lives, EU institutions are not above government institutions. Not always. Not when it matters. Not when it comes to certain things.
This is why a few countries, Portugal, Estonia and Ireland come to mind, are ignoring everything the EU says and offering tax incentives and all kinds of cuts and breaks to investors, crypto 'bros' and companies.
I don't like OpenAI, at all, and I don't particularly like AI either, but there's zero point banning something, or slowing it down, unless every neighbour around you also does it, which they aren't.
Progress, for better or worse, carves its own path, and it never stops.
