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Frank van Harmelen in De Volkskrant on US investments in AI

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23 January 2025
Frank van Harmelen in De Volkskrant on US investments in AI

Frank van Harmelen and other European AI researchers keep facing limitations of the computational capacity in Europe

We are no match for American companies. Just take a look at Meta, which is now training a new AI model. The energy alone, consumed by this project costs 250 thousand dollar a day.

The White house has not made 500 billion dollar available by just creating some kind of a budget. Companies bring all the previously announced investments together, so Trump can brag about results, says Van Harmelen.

In exchange for favouring Trump, tech companies will be awarded with something very precious: fewer rules.

On the very first day, Trump repealed Biden's executive order on AI risks. It is very sad that Trump wipes all the efforts away with one single signature. This, however, fits perfectly into the broader picture of American tech companies, which have in the meantime established close ties with Trump. The focus is on maximum revenue, with no consideration for societal interests.

With his AI company (xAI), Musk is, together with Open AI, Google and other concerns, fighting for AI dominance. Safety concerns are there just to keep appearances, says Van Harmelen.

In the end Musk, Zuckerberg and Altman (Open AI CEO) teamed up, they are against regulations.

Meanwhile, China, America's chief competitor, is rising fast in the field of AI. Deep Seek, a recent newcomer - almost equals the recent Open AI models, but by creating much smaller models and for a fraction of the cost.

Bigger needn't be better. How about Europe? Europe is struggling - not because of strict legislation but because of the lack of computational power and investments.

To read full article in Dutch, click here.

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