Inside Europe's AI playbook: Guardrails first, flexibility later
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Brunner speaks to Axios' Ashley Gold on stage at the HumanX conference in San Francisco. Photo credit: @timoleo_chaudel
A top European AI policy official pushed back on a common critique that the EU's tech regulation stifles innovation in an interview with Axios at the HumanX conference in San Francisco this week.
Why it matters: Europe is hoping to attract tech innovation and investment by highlighting its stable regulatory environment that may be more restrictive, but is consistent across all EU member states.
Driving the news: Magnus Brunner, who works on AI in his role as European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, said Europe's sweeping AI Act provides "guardrails" needed to build trust, even as the U.S. takes a more fragmented, state-by-state approach.
The big picture: Tech executives and government leaders on AI in the U.S. often call out Europe's tech laws — such as the AI Act, the Digital Services Act, and the Digital Markets Act — as burdensome and hurtful to American tech companies.
- AI and tech companies often have to change their product offerings and follow strict rules to be able to operate in the EU.
- Brunner said Europe can be inflexible and slow, but it offers regulatory certainty while companies navigate confusion and a patchwork of laws in the U.S.
What they're saying: "We have one AI Act for 450 million people. And the U.S., for 340 million people, hasn't got a federal regulation, but different states have their regulation — which is surprising for us, because it's a different approach than we were used to from the past," Brunner said.
- "I wouldn't say that regulation is the enemy of innovation. It's actually the other way around, you have these guardrails to have a vision of what's going on instead of being in the Wild West, in a way. "
- He said: "But sometimes you need these rules in order to have some security also for the businesses, I think."
- Brunner added he was "flattered" that California's SB53 resembles the EU AI Act.
Regulation aside, Brunner said the EU is using AI to help track the flow of migrants across Europe.
- It's being used in the EU's new digital entry-exit system, meant to screen out people who should be denied entry into Europe based on criminal history.
- Brunner acknowledged that rolling out such technology on a large scale comes with civil liberties risks: "It's a thin line between the rights for privacy, on the one hand, and then what we need to go after the criminals, in this case."
The bottom line: Brunner said although the relationship between the EU and the US has changed in recent years, they remain allies and should work together on tech and AI.
- "Maybe with the AI Act the U.S. can learn from the European approach. But of course when it comes to more flexibility and innovation, we have to learn from the U.S.," he said.
