EU's von der Leyen backs AI slowdown, to invite frontier labs for talks

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen plans to extend an invitation to leading artificial intelligence companies to discuss industry efforts in slowing down AI development during her State of the European Union speech on Wednesday. According to a draft of her speech seen by POLITICO, von der Leyen will "invite the main frontier labs for a discussion on how we can support ongoing industry efforts to pace the frontier."

She acknowledges the warnings from prominent tech executives in recent days, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Elon Musk of xAI, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who have all called for a slowdown. While von der Leyen is not expected to explicitly assess those calls, she assures Europe's readiness to "support ongoing industry efforts" in this regard.

The Commission president will also emphasize the importance of international collaboration on testing and evaluating frontier AI models. Although she plans to invite the UK and Canada to join the discussion, von der Leyen refrained from mentioning the U.S. and China, the current frontrunners in the AI race. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who is attending von der Leyen's speech in Strasbourg, is expected to align with Europe's position on AI.

Von der Leyen also plans to reassure Europe that it shouldn't focus too much on leading frontier AI development itself, but rather "be the ones who draw the greatest value from it." She highlights five sectors that Europe sees as gaining the highest value from AI use: health, transport, agri-food, advanced manufacturing, and defence and space.