"France’s domestic intelligence service is to ditch AI data tools from the US tech company Palantir in favour of a domestic provider in an effort to avoid 'strategic dependency” the prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has said. “We must use our own AI models; we cannot accept new strategic dependencies in the digital sphere,” Lecornu posted on social media. “We cannot rely on tools developed by foreign powers. France must have its own tools.”
Since then, Germany, Spain, and Britain have followed France, and for the same reasons.
The US economy is being held afloat by a tiny number of Big Tech stocks. Their sky-high valuations assume one thing. That they too will get 40% or so of their revenues from Europe, like Google, Meta & Microsoft before them.
That playbook assumes 2 things;
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that AI labs will be able to extract significant economic rent - as opposed to AI models being mere commodities.
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that other countries can accept structural dependency on US technology and services without pushing back on sovereignty concerns.
Their problem? It’s not going to turn out that way. China’s AI will likely dominate most of the world, and the Europeans won’t trust US tech and will increasingly ban and isolate it.
France to ditch Palantir’s AI data tools in favour of domestic provider
Incoming Prime Minister to drop spy-tech firm Palantir from NHS, reports say