Reference News Network, July 28 report - According to the Japanese Asahi Shimbun, on July 27, Europe's efforts to "get rid of reliance on the United States" in the digital field are intensifying. In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), which is crucial for competitiveness, the United States and China are leading. In this context, the re-election of the Trump administration, which is hostile to the EU, has further highlighted the risks, prompting the EU to accelerate its AI development.

"Many Europeans are asking themselves, 'Have we already fallen behind?' How can we continue to participate in this (development competition) without losing our values?" A video shown at the opening of the technology event "TECH 2025," held in Heilbronn, Germany, in late May, honestly reflected the anxiety of Europe. Former German Foreign Minister Fischer emphasized: "The United States is no longer a reliable partner. It is now time for Europe to cooperate."

In the field of technology such as AI, the United States and China have a dominant advantage, and Europe had previously relied on services from American IT giants. However, the re-election of the Trump administration has changed the situation.

The US and Europe are deepening their opposition in areas such as trade, and mutual vigilance is gradually spreading. After the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, Europe has accelerated the reconstruction of economic security, and AI technology also determines the advantages of countries in military and security fields, which has increased the sense of crisis among European countries.

This spring, the world's largest industrial exhibition, the Hanover Fair, was held in northern Germany, and the necessity of "digital sovereignty" was repeatedly emphasized. This concept aims to build an independent foundation in the digital field that does not rely on other countries, and related services have attracted attention.

STACKIT, an IT company under the German Schwarz Group, which ranks third in the global retail ranking, was one of the exhibitors. The company provides cloud services that comply with EU data protection regulations by setting up data centers only within the EU.

In the European cloud service market, the share of the three major American IT giants, Google and Amazon, is said to exceed 70%. However, STACKIT's CEO Bernd Wagner stated: "Since February of this year, the number of inquiries from European companies seeking alternatives to American giants has increased sharply." The background factor is the concern that the Trump administration may adjust the data transfer framework between the EU and the US.

When companies based in Europe transmit data to overseas, they must meet the conditions stipulated by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation. Based on the 2023 agreement, enterprises certified by the US are considered to meet these conditions, and the procedures are simplified.

However, the Trump administration has removed Democratic members from positions in US regulatory agencies, effectively putting the framework into functional stagnation. Countries such as Sweden have warned about the future risks of transmitting data to the US.

European companies are also showing a counterattack trend in the AI field. The emerging AI company Aleph Alpha, headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, supports the development of AI tailored for specific purposes such as manufacturing and healthcare by effectively utilizing customer enterprise data. The company provides AI development tools to German automotive parts giant Bosch and software giant SAP.

Aleph Alpha's CEO Jonas Andriulis said: "Both Europe and Japan have advantages in manufacturing. By supporting such companies, we can prevent value from being excessively concentrated in foreign tech companies."

The company is building a large AI research and development center in Heidelberg and promoting plans for German small and medium-sized enterprises to apply AI.

However, currently, only the French emerging AI company Mistral AI can compete with Google and the Open AI Research Center (OpenAI) in the development of large language models (LLMs), which are the basis of generative AI. The gap between Europe and the US and China remains huge. (Translated by Ma Xiaoyun)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7532047373632012835/

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