31 Jan 2025

How Trump's reversal on AI safety has created an opportunity for Europe

Laura Connell, Partner, Atomico and Andreas Cleve, CEO and co-founder, Corti

Recent headlines about Trump’s AI Safety executive order reversal and DeepSeek’s breakthrough have reignited debates about global AI leadership. But beneath the hype, these developments reveal a profound shift: the AI race is being redefined in ways that mark clear areas of opportunity for Europe.

DeepSeek's achievements show yet again the fundamentally global nature of the technological shift we are undergoing, against a backdrop of regionally disparate approaches to consumer protection, data privacy and the broader ethical frameworks which underpin AI regulation. We are a way off global regulatory convergence or harmonisation, and the US volte-face on AI regulation has been as much a function of the electoral cycle as longer-term geopolitical and economic interest.

So what does this all mean for Europe? Trump’s rollback on the AI Safety executive order means US AI vendors will no longer have to comply with European standards for safety under the AI Act.

This puts their business customers, particularly those operating in highly regulated industries, in an impossible position — AI unleashed without appropriate safety standards has unmodellable implications. These span from direct risks to businesses and consumers through to the opportunity cost of benefits foregone by critical industries such as healthcare, finance and energy.

These sectors will baulk at wider adoption if we fail to provide reasonable standards of regulatory overview, and regulators must balance this with a recognition that competition is a key driver for innovation. Solving this is essential for all of us — these are the sectors where consumers most stand to benefit from AI.

Europe has the perfect combination of talent, infrastructure and specialised expertise to capitalise on this moment.

Laura Connell, Partner, Atomico and Andreas Cleve, CEO and co-founder, Corti

AI for healthcare, finance and energy

Serving these industries means creating foundational infrastructure and specialised reasoning systems dedicated to complex challenges. General purpose doesn’t meet the brief, but others will. With a deep understanding of regulatory frameworks, business needs and high thresholds set from data privacy to more recent AI regulation across the EU, European companies are already creating the building blocks that will power the next generation of founders in specialised sectors, and thereby solve some of society's most pressing problems.

Take companies developing critical AI infrastructure for healthcare systems, where the risks are highest and can directly impact patient safety. Here, these dangers are already playing out. We are witnessing alarming new trends forming from widespread use of general AI, with reports of fabricated hospital records from transcription tools. Further, a third of US healthcare professionals using AI for documentation are now spending up to three hours a week correcting errors. We can't afford AI solutions that slow down patient care or increase risk. The stakes are simply too high.

The European AI Act, while not perfect, aspires to create a stratified risk framework that enables innovation while maintaining essential safeguards. Far from slowing things down, in high-risk settings, regulation shifts from a brake to accelerator for innovation.

This is where Europe's strengths align perfectly with the market. Our regulatory environment, combined with our deep expertise in regulated industries, positions us uniquely to build trust-first AI solutions in high risk, high reward settings. The opportunity is massive. True first-mover advantage in AI won't come from being first to market — it will come from being first to earn trust in the sectors where AI can have the most profound impact.

This is Europe's moment. By focusing on specialised AI solutions that prioritise trust, safety, and domain expertise, we can build astonishing value in our highest stakes environments: systems trusted to transform our most critical industries and improve lives across the globe.

This article was originally published in Sifted on 31st January, 2025.

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