Philip R. Lane: The AI opportunity for Europe

Dinner remarks by Philip R. Lane, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at The International AI Summit

AI is a general purpose technology that can improve global living standards and the global knowledge frontier by expanding access to information and raising productivity.

That said, delivering the benefits from AI depends on a host of different actors playing their part in supporting the transformation of the economy. The list is long and includes: the developers of AI frontier models (whether proprietary or open-weight); the builders of the various layers of the AI infrastructure stack; the entrepreneurs designing the customised AI products that can best unlock productivity gains in individual sectors or in relation to specialised tasks; the research and development community that can accelerate scientific discovery and compress the time lag between invention and commercial application; the operators of the energy systems that must respond to this new source of energy demand; the financial system that is required to appropriately value AI-related assets and finance AI production and AI adoption, while also incorporating AI into its own processes; the education and training sectors that must re-design instruction, learning and evaluation methods; and, finally, the managers and workers that must implement revised business processes at the sector and firm levels to maximise the benefits of AI.

This transformation also poses many challenges for political systems, civic society, policymakers and regulators at national, European and global levels in relation to the ethical, fiscal, governance and legal issues posed by AI. How these political economy issues are resolved will have a major bearing on the AI transition path, including the appropriate speed of adjustment that balances the societal benefits, costs and risks posed by AI.