Europe cannot afford to again be left behind by the United States in the current technological revolution, according to the EU’s Commissioner for Economy and Productivity. Valdis Dombrovskis made the comments after Saturday’s Ecofin meeting of finance ministers at Dublin Castle.
In a joint press conference with Minister for Finance Simon Harris, Dombrovskis said that during the internet revolution, the US had created “digital giants but we didn’t”.
At present, he said, information and communications technology (ICT) is the key sector in which European productivity falls behind the US. Expanding on this, he said: “It’s important for the EU not to discount this AI revolution because it can be even more transformative in terms of productivity and economic distribution and that’s why the EU is paying such attention."
The technology was discussed at the EU meeting, which was also attended by non-EU figures including the British chancellor of the exchequer, as well as the Ukrainian and Canadian finance ministers.
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Harris was asked if there had been much discussion regarding the dangers of AI raised in recent days by some of those who had worked within companies leading the development of the technology. He said there were a lot of different views on where AI might go and whether measures need to be taken to slow its development, but “that’s not Europe’s biggest challenge right now”.
“The issue is that there are AI technologies today that are under-deployed in the European Union, that are under-deployed in individual member states. There is an under-application of AI in our public services.
“This is consistent across member states, [although] some are further down the road than others.”
He said the ministers had been briefed by the IMF on how the technology was being deployed in different parts of the world. It had been suggested that Europe was doing well in terms of the development of new products.
Asked about the proposed associate EU membership for Canada, raised by Commission president Ursula von der Leyen this week, he said it could open up opportunities for many Irish people, including students.
“We want to do more together and when there are a lot of people in other parts of the world who like to talk down Europe, it’s really good to see that others want to work more closely with us,” he said.
“We already do a lot of trade bilaterally between Ireland and Canada and at the European level with Canada, but I think there are opportunities to do even more.
“And when countries want to get to know each other, one of the long-established ways of doing that is through the education system, through student mobility around Erasmus. If that is something that offered opportunities in both directions, then it certainly merits consideration.”
The meeting also discussed the budgetary needs of Ukraine for next year with the country having requested more than €30 billion in additional funding.
Dombrovskis suggested the EU is likely to provide a majority of the money, but additional information would be required from the IMF before any final package of supports are confirmed.
