A while ago, the European Commission gathered a whole lot of external AI experts to give it input on where Europe stands in AI today. They painted a rather bleak picture of where we might be heading.

Parliament’s lead on the #EUInc, René Repasi, has given us his take on the project. His draft report stays with a regulation – though without much enthusiasm – and sets a possible course for protecting workers’ rights. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/how-eu-...

The EU is playing nice with Washington as it’s making American AI labs restrict leading models to hand-picked partners. “We believe that we’re a trusted partner, not a security risk,” the European Commission said on Monday. Read my article at @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/europe-...

Washington is tightening its grip on its AI companies – and squeezing Europe in the process. OpenAI today said it’ll preview a new suite of frontier models for a few “trusted partners” at the request of the US government. None of these are currently European.

An actress, a director and an alt-rock musician walk into the European Parliament… to advertise their “Human Consent Registry”, which they hope will allow people to control what AIs can use their face or writing for. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/cate-bl...

The @ec.europa.eu has pushed back its planned Public Procurement Act – set to overhaul how public bodies buy things across the Union – until September, according to a new agenda released today. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/commiss...

A first big problem for #EUInc: Council’s legal experts are unhappy with the legal path the Commission chose for its proposal – and are recommending big changes. The question is now what capitals will do with this input. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/council...

Estonia wants to give digital identities to AI agents. It sounds like we’re living in the future, but it’s actually for a mundane reason: To help identify who’s responsible for anonymous agents working autonomously on the internet. Read my article at @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/estonia...

The Commission President on Wednesday tried the sympathy route in an apparent bid to secure European access to American frontier AI models, while speaking at a G7 summit in front of US President Donald Trump and AI leaders. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/von-der...

Finally some more info on the EU’s multi-billion plan to build “AI gigafactories”. The body in charge of the EU’s supercomputers yesterday confirmed our earlier reporting on the overall structure – four smaller, three bigger ones, set to be built in two phases – but also gave other insights:

Paris and Berlin defined "digital sovereignty" The two EU heavyweights sets out a joint view of what sovereignty means in a draft paper seen by @euractiv.com yesterday with @maximilian-henning.eurosky.social ⤵️ www.euractiv.com/news/paris-a...

European leaders are clamouring to secure Europe’s access to frontier AI after the US government abruptly pulled the plug on Anthropic’s leading models. But a few thinktankers fear an EU push for sovereignty could go badly wrong. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/the-pit...

There’s a part of the EU’s rules for AI that I think not enough people are paying attention to – those for making AI more transparent, which might end up changing the European internet quite a bit. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/how-eu-...

Trump has pulled the first kill switch. If any European politician still opposes tech sovereignty after this, I don't know what to tell them anymore. Read @claudiemoreau.bsky.social's article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/anthrop...

The EU’s AI gigafactories seem to be changing shape. Instead of five hubs with more than 100.000 AI chips each, insiders tell us we might in the end see more hubs of different, smaller sizes. Read @theophane.euractiv.com's and my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/eu-eyei...

OpenAI has come out in favour of the EU’s new code of practice on AI transparency – though a blog post stops short of completely committing to sign the voluntary document. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/openai-...

The EU on Wednesday published its final code of practice on AI transparency. Companies that sign up will need to build “solutions” for users to check whether an image, a videos or a text came out of their AI systems. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/eu-tell...

Germany’s national security council has decided to set up an AI security institute. The move comes as governments around the world are nervously eyeing AI’s growing cyber capabilities. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/germany...

Dozens of lawmakers from Parliament’s left side are putting pressure on the European Commission to give more detail, or rather any detail, on which conflict-of-interest safeguards it has in place for its new AI envoy. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/meps-qu...

Yet another sovereign cloud piece from me, looking at how the @ec.europa.eu could force banks, airports, refineries to ditch US clouds CAIDA includes powers over private sector provision in 'specific circumstances' - @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/eu-coul...

EU countries are nearing a deadline to build identity wallets, meant for citizens to easily digitally prove their identities. But a document we’ve seen suggests disagreements with the Berlaymont over key technical details. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/capital...

The @ec.europa.eu on Thursday said it has “strong safeguards” in place to eliminate conflicts of interests with its new AI envoy, the chairman of Siemens – adding it couldn’t say what those safeguards were for privacy reasons. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/commiss...

Siemens chairman Jim Hagemann Snabe is getting a new gig as European Commission industrial AI envoy. The reaction from transparency campaigner @bramvranken.bsky.social: “It is hard to imagine a more obvious conflict of interest.” Read my article at Euractiv: www.euractiv.com/news/siemens...

An EU-led meeting between AI companies and copyright holders turned sour on Tuesday, several people who were present said. The two sides had been meant to agree on new ways for websites to opt out of being used for AI training. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/eu-eyes...

The European Parliament is doing its part – or at least, a part – for European tech sovereignty: Starting Thursday, French Qwant will replace Google as default search engine on Parliament computers. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/europea...

In case you missed it: Member states’ ministers on Thursday discussed #EUInc in detail – and laid out exactly which parts of the project they’re not yet fully convinced of. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/eu-inc-...

Looks like the EU‘s planned AI gigafactories are shrinking even before they are officially launched. The next step for selecting the locations of the AI training hubs has been delayed for several months and is still MIA. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/eu-scal...

@ec.europa.eu hails full-stack tech sovereignty approach, document reveals The Commission plans to attract foreign heavyweights to build AI chips in Europe @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/commiss...

European politicians are talking a lot about technological sovereignty at the moment. Unlike many others, the EU’s Henna Virkkunen is also doing so on a European platform: Mastodon. We spoke to Felix Hlatky, who runs the non-profit behind the world’s largest purple-themed microblogging network.

The European Commission said it “fully” shares the Pope’s vision for regulating AI on Tuesday. “I think we can be proud of the clear legal framework that we have in Europe at the moment,” a spokesperson said. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/pope-gi...

Remember the standards meant for companies to show they’re following the AI Act’s high-risk rules? The standards being delayed led to the rules themselves being pushed back, but the writing now seems to be making progress. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/ai-stan...

A group of lawmakers is pushing for the EU Parliament to set up a standing AI and robotics committee. They cite the tech’s impact on healthcare, labour markets and defence as reasons for the “urgent institutional step”. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/meps-pu...

The European Commission today put out guidelines meant to help companies classify whether their AI systems fall under the AI Act’s stricter high-risk rules – though only as a draft, and several months late. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/late-gu...

I’m starting to see a pattern: The European Commission has pushed back its tech sovereignty package for the third time. It’s now set to be presented on 3 June, after originally being planned for March. Let’s see if it becomes July. Read my article at @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/eus-tec...

Key AI lawmakers called on the European Commission today to back its AI Office with enough resources for it to deal with its expanding set of tasks. Read more in today’s edition of @euractiv.com’s The Hack: www.euractiv.com/news/the-hac...

The European Commission is working on a new law zeroing in on licensing content for training AI, aiming at making sure creatives get paid while AI developers should get easier access to copyrighted material. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/commiss...

Meta has paused a fee it charged competitors for offering their chatbots on WhatsApp. The step is meant to allow time for talks with the European Commission in an ongoing competition investigation. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/meta-pa...

Several EU capitals today put more weight behind reforming EU copyright rules for the AI age. Henna Virkkunen, for her part, said she was open to new measures for a “flourishing licencing market”, with first steps “very soon”. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/spain-l...

The @ec.europa.eu's #EUInc proposal is based on a bit of legal innovation to be ambitious and have a shot at passing. But this has also raised eyebrows in Council, with several capitals calling for an in-depth legal analysis. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/eu-inc-...

The @ec.europa.eu today put out draft guidance for the EU’s rules on AI transparency. Here are some of the less serious highlights:

Euractiv has obtained a document setting out the position with which Council went into tonight’s crunch trilogue talks on AI simplification. Machinery would be exempt from most of the AI Act, but some rules would still apply. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/what-eu...

Is anyone sticking around to follow this - hopefully last - trilogue session on the AI simplification package live today? Let me know if yes and if there's interest, I'll try to provide updates as they come in.

EU capitals in a surprise move seem ready to accept cutting the AI Act’s rules for machinery – a big win for German chancellor Friedrich Merz. Talks with Parliament could seal a deal later today if lawmakers accept limited victory. Read my article at @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/council...

What would you do with a few hundred million to fund AI for the common good? We sat down with Ayah Bdeir, who’s currently giving her take on that question as CEO of Current AI – a non-profit backed by several EU governments. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/inside-...

Next shot at getting a deal on AI simplification is set for Wednesday. Capitals will earlier that day discuss – again – how far they’re willing to go to meet Parliament, with a partial cut to industrial AI rules back on the table. Read my article at @euractiv.com www.euractiv.com/news/capital...

Socialist and Green lawmakers are taking square aim at the EPP over tonight’s failed AI talks – not only within Parliament, but also in Berlin and in the Berlaymont. The Greens are even speaking of a “German EPP coup”. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/greens-...

A letter obtained by Euractiv suggests that German chancellor Merz is not only going against Council with his push to cut EU industrial AI rules, but also against his own coalition partner in Berlin. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/merzs-c...

Talks on AI simplification collapsed during the night, with Council and Parliament unable to agree on cutting rules for industrial AI. Council offered some concessions which EPP, right-wing groups and part of Renew did not accept. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/epp-blo...

The talks on the AI omnibus have finished without result, several sources tell me. A next session could take place in around two weeks.

In case you missed it: I wrote up a short introduction into how China regulates AI. Turns out, China manages to be the world’s second-most important tech hub even while putting strict rules on its companies. Read my article at @euractiv.com: www.euractiv.com/news/chinas-...