BERLIN: Europe must strive to lead in the AI race, top officials urged Tuesday at a summit focused on propelling the region to the forefront of the digital era and reducing its reliance on US tech titans.&nbsp;As the Berlin gathering got underway, the EU also announced that Amazon and Microsoft cloud services could face stricter competition rules in the bloc as Brussels probes their market power.&nbsp;The summit brought together leaders from Europe&#39;s tech sector, and was to be addressed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron later Tuesday.&nbsp;&quot;Europe&#39;s goal is very simple: we want to lead, not follow, on AI and frontier technologies,&quot; European Commission digital chief Henna Virkkunen told the opening of the event.&nbsp;&quot;We have the market, we have the talent, we have the ambition. Now we must deliver scale in investment, innovation and uptake.&quot;&nbsp;Europe is responding to calls to blaze its own digital path and take steps to catch up in the AI race against China and the United States.&nbsp;Concerns about US tech dominance have also grown as ties with Washington become increasingly uneasy under the &quot;America First&quot; administration of Donald Trump.&nbsp;Despite the US-Europe tensions, a senior official from the French presidency said the summit was not about &quot;confrontation&quot; with the United States or even China.&nbsp;Rather it is about &quot;how we protect our core sovereignty and what rules need to be established, especially at the European level&quot;, said the official.&nbsp;&nbsp;Become a creatorAlso speaking at the opening, German Digital Minister Karsten Wildberger said that &quot;for too long, Europe has been mainly a customer and a bystander.&nbsp;&quot;Now we must become a creator&quot;.&nbsp;But the continent is &quot;not moving fast enough,&quot; he said, adding that &quot;regulation is too complex and infrastructure is still behind&quot;.&nbsp;His comments came a day before the EU was set to propose a rollback of its rules on AI and data protection -- a move welcomed by businesses, but criticised by privacy advocates.&nbsp;Virkkunen also announced the move against Amazon and Microsoft cloud services in Berlin, saying that twin investigations aim to assess whether the tech giants &quot;should be designated as the gatekeepers on cloud computing&quot;.&nbsp;The European Commission, the bloc&#39;s digital regulator, said it will investigate whether Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft&#39;s Azure should come under the scope of the Digital Markets Act (DMA).&nbsp;Efforts to build up &quot;sovereign&quot; EU cloud computing capabilities, which proponents argue would better protect Europeans&#39; data, were also being discussed in Berlin.&nbsp;Digital ministers from across Europe, as well as CEOs of tech firms like France&#39;s Mistral and Germany&#39;s SAP, were attending, and announcements on new digital initiatives were expected.

Artificial Intelligence

Europe wants to lead in AI and is probing Amazon and Microsoft cloud services under the DMA for potential "gatekeeper" status. Officials at the German summit urged Europe to move faster, become a "creator," and protect its digital sovereignty.



Europe challenges US tech giants at AI summit

BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed Monday to take on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of five state elections next year as the party surges in the polls. The AfD scored a record 20.8% in a general election in February, and its ratings have since continued to rise, with many surveys now putting it as the biggest party. Merz said the AfD would be the &quot;main opponent&quot; of his conservative CDU/CSU alliance at state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Berlin in 2026.&nbsp;&lsquo;Very clearly and explicitly&rsquo;&quot;We will now also be very clear and very explicit about where the AfD stands in terms of content, and we will distance ourselves from them very clearly and explicitly,&quot; he said after a party conference in Berlin. In the two former East German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the AfD is currently projected to win by a clear margin. This has led some regional CDU officials to call for the party to drop its opposition to forming political alliances with the far right.&nbsp;&lsquo;Wants a different country&rsquo;&nbsp;But Merz insisted that his party would not collaborate with the AfD, some of whose branches have been declared right-wing extremist by German intelligence services. &quot;This party has declared its intention to destroy the CDU. It wants a different country,&quot; Merz said. &quot;It is not just details that separate us. We are separated from the AfD by fundamental issues and fundamental political convictions.&quot;&nbsp;&lsquo;Wants to destroy us&rsquo;Referring to offers of collaboration from the party, Merz said, &quot;the hand that the AfD repeatedly extends is in reality a hand that wants to destroy us&quot;. The AfD last year became the first far-right party to win a regional election in Germany since the Nazis, in the eastern state of Thuringia. One survey for the Bild newspaper on Sunday put the AfD at 27% of voting intentions at the national level, ahead of Merz&#39;s CDU/CSU at 25%. Germany&#39;s mainstream political parties have long maintained a &quot;firewall&quot; against cooperation with the AfD.

Europe

Says the AfD will be the "main opponent" of his conservative CDU/CSU alliance at state elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Berlin in 2026.

Articles tagged with "Friedrich Merz"

Europe challenges US tech giants at AI summit

Germany's Merz vows to take on ascendant far-right AfD