AI race: Can Europe keep up with China and the US?

DW (English)

China and the US are leading the world when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI). Where do European countries really stand in the race and will they ever be competitive in the field?

Transcript

00:00This art has been created by artificial intelligence virtually on its own.

00:06We can use generative AI to create things like text, images or even music.

00:11The US is a leader in this field, as is China, where this tea is being harvested automatically with the help of AI.

00:22Europe still lags behind in AI development.

00:25Can the Europeans catch up in the race for this vital technology?

00:29In France, startup Noucaille is developing new solutions for logistics companies.

00:36The big difference between our approach and others that are fashionable right now is we're centered on humans.

00:42We're not going to use tons of data and simply assume the machine knows better.

00:47Being human-centered means having a cooperation between man and machine so humans can use the machines to work better.

00:56France hopes to become a world leader in AI, the country's attracting investors like Microsoft.

01:02Its CEO Satya Nadella plans to invest 4 billion euros in a new data center there.

01:07French startups also stand to profit.

01:13Their startups benefit from a lot of assistance, not just financial but also advice.

01:19Still, France is far behind the US when it comes to patent registrations and investments in AI data centers.

01:27The French government should focus more on our internal strengths rather than trying to compete with the Americans or the Chinese.

01:35To give you a practical example, they should support AI technologies that are different rather than the ones that are the latest fashion.

01:46Berlin, Germany's political and AI capital.

01:50Cutting-edge companies like JetBrains have settled here.

01:53They are searching for new ways to solve large and complex tasks.

01:57For instance, why read a 50-page document when you could ask questions and get answers about specific aspects?

02:04Part of the problem is we approach these models like we're speaking to another person that can understand us.

02:10But really they're just sophisticated algorithms that need specific instructions.

02:14So changes in, say, the wording or the tone can give us drastically different outputs.

02:20Up to four pages of text must be entered to get optimal results.

02:24Prompt engineering is a fairly new field, so experts are hard to come by.

02:29And the need is great.

02:30Still, European startups can't afford to offer the high salaries big US firms can.

02:36In the United States, salary sites indicate that this job is on average earning about $130,000 a year.

02:42But many people work with prompting, most notably ML engineers.

02:46And this job requires a deep knowledge of ML models beyond just prompting.

02:50So ML engineers are earning on average about $175,000.

02:55Still, the competition for the best minds isn't everything.

02:59The focus has really been different.

03:02So in the United States, the top companies that are producing the top models are there.

03:06But they're really releasing these models in a proprietary fashion, so you have to pay to use them.

03:10In China and in Europe, by contrast, a lot of the focus has been on open source models.

03:15So releasing models that are free and anyone can use them.

03:18So interestingly, some of these open source models are also becoming competitive with those released by the top US AI companies.

03:25While the US still leads the AI race, many of its firms' multibillion-dollar investments have yet to pay off.

03:32European companies have set themselves more modest goals, but they're catching up.

03:37China remains ahead of Europe, though behind the US.

03:41The battle for AI supremacy is far from over.

03:55Microsoft Mechanics

03:56www.microsoft.com

03:58www.microsoft.com

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