Thread by @St_Heumann

"Strategic Autonomy" is a nice idea and a good tallking point. Reality is that the EU & its memeber states are unprepared to implement it regarding geopolitical competition in #technology. Just compare EU strategic thinking to the report by @AiCommission (Thread 1/21)

There is just no gov report to be found in Europe reflecting this kind of depth of understanding of #AI combined with breadth of implications it covers. It helps if you can bring together 15 leading experts from academia, tech and government and give them serious support. (2)

The entire report covers 751 pages. But the difference to lengthy European policy reports is that it is not too long. I would not recommend to read from start to end. Instead this is a great ressource - both for important background, for important trends & for policy advice. (3)

I won't go through the whole thing. Of course I have not read the 750 pages all myself yet. But here are a few things I find noteworthy, especially in regard to challenges this report poses to Europe. (4)

The report makes clear how serious the US is about defending its position of of technological supremacy. China is written all over the report. It is calling for a much larger role for government to achieve this goal. (5)

I will leave the analysis of military and intelligence uses of #AI to the security folks. Just one point here. The report is deeply realist and fatalistic. According to @AiCommission there is no alternative to adopting #AI and autonomous weapons systems. (6)

The report reflects a very broad understanding of #AI as an infrastructure for automation and problem solving with key components in hardware, software and human talent. It is refreshing how litte the report talks about data as a critical input. (7)

It is interesting that it frames surveillance capitalism as national security concern. (8)

Compared to Germany and many EU countries, the US gov has done much better in integrating tech talent. But @AiCommission calls for much more efforts. It sees the integration of tech talent as most crucial to government capacity. (9)

The report recognicizes the challenges of making sure that #AI capabilities are developed within democratic governance and oversight. A topic that needs much more attention than 20 out of 750 pages. (10)

The report identifies a key vulnerability of US strength in #AI - its attraction of foreign talent. Maintaing this talent inflow is seen as serious national security interest. (11)

The @AiCommission is calling for serious public investments in #AI related R&D. They call for a target of spending 30 billions USD annually - a figure the EU plans to spend in a decade. (12)

It also sees intellectual property as key to national interests. The US has just shown this muscle to China in semiconductors. (13)

The report claims that theft of technology by China costs the US 300-600 billion a year - putting the protection of critical technologies at the center of competition with China. (14)

The report also includes detailed analysis and proposals on how to align US allies with US interests. Here are some initiatives the EU can expect to see from the US. (15)

And this is the key difference. Policy coordination through the White House. On the EU level - we have to deal with 27 member states. In Germany the #5G debate showed that foreign and economic ministry are not aligned. (16)

The report calls for preparing @StateDept for the digital age. But seriously how prepared are @AuswaertigesAmt or @eu_eeas - it could be hard for US Diplomats to find informed counterparts. (17)

Well - it looks like we can expect more 700 plus pages reports. (18)

Whether you agree with all the assessments or not - this is a very serious report. And with the Biden administration we can expect an effective executive to pick up these issues. Correct me if I am wrong - but I don't see how Europe is ready to engage with this. (19)

This brings me back to my first point. US interests in geopolitics of tech are clearly formulated - so are China's. I don't see any comparable strategic thinking in Brussels or Berlin. But an EU strategy would require exactly that. (20)

And maybe as an important footnote. The entire report is also part of the #AI hype in geopolitics. It takes the future potential and importance of #AI technologies as a given - there is little consideration of its limitations and shortcomings. End. (21)