Meta’s Nick Clegg Urges European AI Development After Dublin Meeting
Meta’s Nick Clegg urged Taoiseach Simon Harris to embrace open AI development in Europe, following elections in June and their December meeting in Dublin.
Nick Clegg, a senior executive at Meta, called Simon Harris, the Taoiseach, to say that he thought Europe should “embrace an open approach” to developing artificial intelligence (AI). He said these things in an email to Fine Gael’s leader after the June European elections. Since then, the two have met in Dublin in December.
Mr. Clegg currently holds the position of president for global affairs at Meta. He used to be the deputy prime minister of Britain. Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and it has been working on AI products. The tech giant has blamed regulatory system issues for delaying some of these products in Europe.
In June, Mr. Clegg wrote an online piece titled “The New European Parliament Faces an Existential Crisis.” In what he wrote, he said, “Complex rules and different laws in each European member state make companies hesitant to launch new products here.”
In addition, Mr. Clegg said, “Meta, Google, and others have pushed back the release of their AI assistants here, and even European success stories like Volkswagen are leaving more and more to build and launch their AI products in the US.”
He also stated that while European leaders have expressed a desire for Europe to compete with China and the US in the technology sector, their failure to properly complete the digital single market has hindered their progress.
Before going live across the continent, Mr. Clegg said, a digital start-up in Amsterdam would “have to navigate 27 different intellectual property laws, different rules for the licensing of content, data protection authorities, and other obstacles.”
The Department of the Taoiseach released records under the Freedom of Information Act that show Mr. Clegg sent Mr. Harris an email on June 27 to share the article.
Mr. Clegg expressed concern that companies in Europe are experiencing a significant shift as they “are growing more slowly, reporting lower returns, and lagging behind peers in research and development.”
He said, “I think Europe can change its course by playing to its strength: the European Single Market.” He also said, “This represents over 450 million consumers, but it’s not complete.”
Mr. Clegg added, “It should also take an open approach to AI development.” Using open-source AI models will give European businesses, start-ups, and researchers access to tools they wouldn’t have otherwise.”
Ireland Reaffirms Digital Leadership in Talks with Meta
Meta didn’t say anything about Mr. Clegg’s conversations with Mr. Harris. The Taoiseach’s office said in a statement that Mr. Harris met with Mr. Clegg in Dublin on December 5th and that “the Taoiseach reiterated the Government’s commitment to maintaining Ireland’s position as a digital leader in Europe and beyond, as outlined in our National Digital Strategy.”
It also said, “This includes the government’s promise to set up a strong, well-resourced network of regulators to keep an eye on and enforce digital rules in a way that protects our citizens and encourages new ideas.”
According to reports, Mr. Harris reiterated his remarks from the October US-Ireland Economic Summit, during which he discussed the Draghi Report on EU Competitivity.
Mario Draghi’s report “highlights a significant opportunity for the EU to lead in the next wave of innovation, in AI and other advanced technologies,” according to a statement.
Mr. Harris “welcomed Draghi’s call to speed up innovation in the EU, to deal with our productivity problems, and to get rid of the things that get in the way of innovative companies growing and getting money.”
