Europe’s AI Regulation Could Harm Innovation, Dutch Prince Sends US and China Warning

Europe is taking an aggressive stand on regulating Artificial Intelligence (AI), implementing thorough guidelines to ensure responsible research and use of the technology.  While regulations are intended to address potential problems linked with AI, Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands has warned that the strategy may cause the region to fall behind the United States and China in the development of AI. “Our ambition seems to be limited to being good regulators,” Constantijn told CNBC on the sidelines of the Money 20/20 fintech conference in Amsterdam recently. “We’ve seen this in the data space [with GDPR], the platform space, and now the AI space,” said Constantijn, the third and youngest son of former Dutch Queen Beatrix. The European Union (EU) authorities have adopted strict regulations on AI in order to reduce bias, discrimination, and privacy issues.

Europe’s focus is more on AI regulations

Prince Constantijn expressed “deep concern” that Europe’s focus has been on controlling AI rather than being a leader in innovation. “It’s beneficial to have guardrails. We want to bring transparency and certainty to the market. But it’s very difficult to do in such a fast-paced environment,” he remarked. “There are significant risks in getting it wrong, but as we’ve seen in genetically engineered organisms, it hasn’t slowed growth. It simply stopped Europe from creating it, and we are now consumers of the product rather than producers with the ability to influence the market as it grows,” he continued. According to Constantijn, Europe is making it “quite difficult” for itself to advance in AI because of “significant data restrictions.” Constantijn pointed out that the US market is “a much bigger and unified market” with more free-flowing cash. On these grounds, he said, “Europe scores quite poorly.” “I believe we perform well in terms of talent. “We do well on technology,” he remarked. Furthermore, when it comes to producing AI-enabled applications, “Europe is definitely going to be competitive,” Constantijn stated. Also Read: What is AI Washing And How AI Washing Can Mislead And Harm Individuals And Companies?