Lagarde Sounds the Alarm Over Tech Dependence: Europe Must Develop Its Own AI

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Europe must invest in developing its own artificial intelligence technology and sharply increase the number of data centers, in order to avoid a dangerous dependence on the United States and China.

According to Lagarde, if Europe manages to build its own capacities in the field of AI, the threat of being cut off from technology developed outside the continent would lose its force.

During a speech in Vienna, Lagarde highlighted the large gap that currently exists in the development of this technology. According to her, over the past year the U.S. produced 59 notable AI models, while China produced 35. In Europe, France and the United Kingdom each produced one model.

“Europe faces a difficult choice,” Lagarde said, warning that such a dependence could limit the continent’s ability to organize its economy in line with its own values.

She stressed that a potential disruption of Europe’s access to AI technologies, or a change in their terms of use, would have immediate and wide-ranging consequences for the economy.

Lagarde mentioned many sectors where AI is expected to play an ever-growing role, from border controls and tax administration to rail transport, patient monitoring in hospitals and bank payment processing.

“Within a few years it will be the control of goods at the border, deciding which tax returns will be audited, dispatching trains, monitoring patients in wards and clearing payments in banks. A withdrawal of access, or a change in its terms, would reach every sector at once,” she said.