Is Europe Getting AI Wrong?
Ramsha Jahangir / Jul 12, 2026Audio of this conversation is available via your favorite podcast service.
When Europe 2031 was published in June, it set off an immediate debate in Brussels and beyond. The fictional near-future scenario authored by a group of AI researchers argues that Europe risks economic and political irrelevance if it fails to compete at the frontier of AI development. Within days of its release, the United States government ordered Anthropic to restrict access to its most advanced AI models for non-US users—an event the report had projected for 2029, underscoring the potential threat.
In this episode, I’m joined by Europe 2031 co-author Maximilian Negele and AI Now Institute advisor Frederike Kaltheuner, an author of a three-part series for Tech Policy Press that argues Europe's dependency problem runs deeper than frontier model access, to debate what Europe is actually getting wrong, and what it would take to change course.
VivaTech returns to the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Centre for its 10th edition in Paris, France, on June 19, 2026. VivaTech organizes Europe's largest event dedicated to start-ups and technology. (Photo by Telmo Pinto/NurPhoto via AP)
A transcript is forthcoming.
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