“As the world stands on the cusp of an artificial intelligence revolution [IA], Europe cannot afford to remain stagnant in technology (…) of the last century. We must unleash our innovation potential.” proclaims Mario Draghi’s report. To avoid the decline in the technological sphere, its guide published on September 9 advocates investing more, more specifically, and also regulating less. “ “The regulatory obstacles to scaling up are particularly heavy in the technology sector, especially for young companies.”, writes the former president of the European Central Bank (ECB), telling “a hundred laws focused on technologies and more than 270 regulators” in digital in Europe.
In the European technology sector, the document was well received. “We agree with the observation of the absence of a European digital giant or the loss of competitiveness compared to the United States. A few years ago we would not have seen this type of speech”welcomes Maya Noël, CEO of the startup association France Digitale.
“The conclusions of the report are quite relevant. “We need to be able to try things while benefiting from the same rules as overseas players, without being at a disadvantage.”, agrees Matthieu Rouif, co-founder of AI photo editing startup Photoroom. “European digital regulation is already too cumbersome, which generates compliance costs and time, but if we follow the same path in AI regulation, it will be irremediable, because this technology is critical”, also thinks Philippe Corrot, co-founder and CEO of Mirakl, which develops artificial intelligence tools in e-commerce.
Regulatory “sandbox”
A mix of liberalism (lightening regulation) and industrial policy (support sectors), the Draghi report recalls the positions of France and Emmanuel Macron, who commissioned the AI Commission report presented in March and opposes certain European rules in this area . For startups, the work of the former president of the Italian council is considered more of a general guideline to follow than a catalog of measures to be applied in detail.
Maya Noël welcomes the idea of bringing the European Innovation Council closer to the model of Darpa, the US military’s innovation agency, which places pre-orders with technology companies. The report also aims to encourage the free exchange of data between companies to train AI software in the automotive, pharmaceutical, energy, agricultural, etc. sectors.
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