The AI Now Institute has published today a new collection of essays on the need to reorient EU AI Industrial policy. The collection aims to provide EU policymakers with policy research, perspectives, and evidence on the challenges of scaling up public investment in a highly concentrated global AI market. Our contribution to the collection calls for confronting, through strategic investment in public digital infrastructure, the fundamental mismatch between the interests of a small number of US and China-based tech corporations on the one hand and the health of European democracies on the other.
The piece begins by acknowledging the growing recognition that governments must take a more active role in shaping digital markets, moving away from the neoliberal approach of the past. In recent years, the EU has introduced various regulations to address the challenges of the digital economy. However, regulation alone is insufficient to transform the current digital landscape. Achieving meaningful change will require significant investment in public infrastructure, with a focus on creating open, interoperable, and publicly-governed systems.
Against this backdrop, various concepts, including the idea of digital public infrastructure (DPI), are gaining global traction, with India’s open digital systems, such as its digital identity and payment platforms, becoming a key source of inspiration. The promise of DPI lies in its potential to address the concentration of power in the digital economy. However, there are concerns that focusing too narrowly on technical solutions may overlook broader social impacts.
To avoid these pitfalls, the piece advocates for “public digital infrastructure” (PDI). This concept describes digital infrastructure designed to maximize public value by combining public attributes through unrestricted access with public functions and public ownership. The approach stresses the importance of collective governance and non-extractive economic models, and of prioritizing sustainable digital alternatives to Big Tech. There is a need to move beyond fragmented, short-term, and innovation-focused funding models that place hope for Europe’s prosperity in “disruptive” technologies, including AI. Without a comprehensive approach to public digital infrastructure, Europe risks remaining dependent on foreign tech giants rather than establishing itself as a sovereign force in the digital economy.
