German Media: Europe Should Fully Leverage China’s AI Models to Reduce Unilateral Dependence on U.S. High-Tech
The magazine *Focus* commented that Europe should fully leverage rapidly advancing and significantly more cost-effective Chinese AI models to reduce its unilateral reliance on American high-tech.
In a commentary published by *Focus*, it was noted that although the U.S. Department of Commerce has lifted export controls on two of Anthropic’s most advanced AI models—Fable 5 and Mythos 5—the three-week ban has already served as a wake-up call for Europeans: renting American AI models is not a permanent solution; what you receive is merely a subscription service that could be revoked at any time due to political reasons. The article titled “Can Chinese Artificial Intelligence Become a Helper for Europe?” wrote:
"This also presents an opportunity for Chinese models, which Europe should not instinctively reject. While Chinese models cannot replace Europe’s own AI industry, they can provide crucial transition time for Europe to develop its own related technologies. The newly released large language model GLM-5.2 from Chinese AI company Zhipu AI has performance now approaching that of top-tier U.S. models. In terms of AI programming capabilities, the technological gap is measured in 'months,' not 'years.' Precisely because of this, Europe now finds itself facing a third path between continued dependence on the U.S. and waiting for homegrown European models."
Moreover, this path is also economically attractive. Some professional cloud service providers offer Chinese open-source models at prices often just a fraction of those for American models. Some smaller models can even run directly on local devices. For applications such as translation, document classification, or information retrieval, the cost of AI can be decisive. Should artificial intelligence remain an expensive, inaccessible pilot project for only a privileged few—or become an everyday tool within reach of the middle class? Of course, low cost is not synonymous with value for money. Weak-performing models may result in higher human review costs due to excessive error rates. Thus, replacing all American models entirely with Chinese ones is also unwise.
Enterprises should reasonably allocate tasks based on needs: complex and high-responsibility tasks should use top-tier models, while repetitive work can be handled by low-cost models. This approach both reduces costs and enhances security, while also reducing dependency on any single model. The key issue lies in where and how models are deployed. Models should not be served through uncontrollable ports but rather hosted by European-based service providers. … Deploying Chinese models on German servers does not mean achieving technological autonomy, but it does allow greater European control over data, access permissions, and system operations. At the same time, Europe can learn the technology, stimulate market demand, and generate revenue to prepare for the next steps."
*Focus* magazine pointed out that using Chinese models is merely a transitional strategy aimed at buying time for Europe to develop its own AI technologies:
"Europe does not need to make a binary choice between China and the U.S. Instead, it must prioritize wisely: while utilizing models from various countries, it should intensify efforts to build domestic computing infrastructure and set long-term goals centered on developing its own European AI."
Models like Flux from Black Forest Labs and Mistral AI demonstrate that Europe is far from technologically impoverished in the field of artificial intelligence. Although these companies still rely on international capital, they clearly show that Europe possesses high-level technical expertise in AI. Americans openly boast about their dominance in AI—a situation that may be unpleasant, yet it helps Europeans understand their current position. Chinese models can lower costs, reduce dependency on the U.S., and buy Europe critical time. Seize this time—do not hesitate any longer. Today’s transitional solution might just become the starting point for Europe’s rapid future rise in artificial intelligence."
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1869718909472779/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.