Geopolitical turbulences, like the war in Iran, have also drowned out other topics at gatherings of EU leaders in the first half of this year.
Getting the message
Pressure has been growing in recent months for the EU’s top political body to sink its teeth into the topic.
In late June, dozens of lawmakers, led by Dutch Greens European Parliament lawmaker Reinier van Lanschot, called on Costa to “convene a special European Council summit dedicated to artificial intelligence as soon as possible.”
AI is “the most consequential structural transformation of our era” but currently “left without the room it requires,” the letter, seen by POLITICO, said. They urged Costa to take a comprehensive look at the topic, covering “innovation, security, ethics, societal, environmental, and geopolitical dimensions.”
More than 100 experts backed up that call last week, in a report they penned on frontier AI at the request of the European Commission. They pushed to “[elevate] frontier AI to a priority at the highest political level.”
“Sustained attention at the highest level was described as a precondition for implementing the other recommendations,” the report stated. One of the recommendations was an accelerated build-up of AI compute power across the bloc.
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