Europe did not outsource its defense capabilities to the USA, but it did allow itself to become dependent, and hence vulnerable. It did the same with the constellation of industries which create artificial intelligence. On both issues, the dangerous consequences are only truly being felt during President Trump’s second term.
By undermining NATO, attacking U.S. academic institutions, and injecting deep uncertainty into America’s role on the world stage, Trump has suddenly and alarmingly revealed the U.S. to be an unreliable ally. Europe is left exposed.
On defense, European leaders have learned the lesson with initial plans announced to spend €150 billion to rearm the continent. The real objective of this step change is to avoid being dependent on the U.S. for the protection of Europe’s vital interests.
Dangerous dependence
Yet on AI and advanced technologies, the continent has not moved so decisively—and time is running out. For the best part of a century, American firms have been more innovative and more effective at commercializing technology than companies elsewhere. Gradually, without many people noticing, Europe became largely reliant on the U.S. for its own development and deployment of innovative technologies.
If it is unacceptable to be dependent on an unreliable ally for defense, it is equally unacceptable to be dependent for the provision of artificial intelligence. AI is already at the heart of many business and government processes—analyzing data, generating options, taking decisions, and increasingly, implementing them. Imagine if the provider of a vital AI agent suddenly declared it was no longer available.
Facebook now threatens to withhold services from customers in European countries because it does not like their regulations. Its services are valuable, but they are not arbiters of life and death. Yet what if Microsoft or Oracle were to do the same with software that millions of organizations rely on for…