There was a time when people said: “the Americans invent, the Chinese copy, the Europeans regulate”. Today, the United States dominates AI, China makes the most advanced products… and Europe watches the train go by while debating whether ChatGPT should say “hello” in gender-inclusive language.
Europe is quietly losing the global race for artificial intelligence and innovation. The United States invents, funds and dominates: more than 100 billion dollars invested in AI in 2024, against less than 10 billion for China and a few crumbs for Europe. China, for its part, no longer copies: it now controls global production of robots, batteries and semiconductors.
Meanwhile, the European Union keeps perfecting its regulatory arsenal, with no industrial strategy and no shared vision. France likes to dream of itself as Asterix’s Gaulish village: Mistral AI shines, Paris attracts, but 56% of French capital flows out to the United States, and the talent follows.
The result: a continent regulating what it no longer produces, dependent on American clouds and Asian supply chains. If we are not careful, the risk is to become a digital colony for good, a mere consumer of technologies designed elsewhere.
Europe can still react, by linking regulation with industrial strategy, by investing massively, by unifying its markets. But the innovation train will not wait for those who stay on the platform arguing about the colour of the carriages.
Find the full transcript of this episode, along with all the sources and plenty more, at: The silent decline
