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AI summit in Paris: Europe stands in its own way.

AI summit in Paris: Europe stands in its own way.

As Europe gets bogged down in regulatory debates at the AI Summit in Paris, the US and UK continue to drive the AI revolution forward - without committing to international guidelines.

Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman makes it clear that despite Musk's billion-dollar offer, his company is not for sale.

And as the big tech companies battle for market leadership, SaaS may be on the brink of extinction - AI agents could soon make traditional software obsolete.

More in today's issue. Enjoy reading!

Marcus Schuler

AI summit in Paris

US VP Vance warns EU

US Vice President JD Vance warned the EU that strict European artificial intelligence rules could slow innovation. He criticized the EU's regulatory approach, saying it could hurt smaller companies and lead to censorship. Vance stressed that the US must remain a leader in AI technology in the face of growing global competition, particularly from China.

UK and US refuse to sign international declaration on AI

The UK and US have refused to sign an international declaration on AI at a summit in Paris, citing national security and governance concerns. The agreement, backed by many countries, aims to ensure an ethical and inclusive approach to the development of AI. Critics fear that the UK's refusal to sign the agreement could damage its reputation as a pioneer of safe AI innovation.

EU to invest €200 billion in AI

The European Union wants to invest €200 billion to improve its artificial intelligence capabilities and catch up with the US and China. The initiative, called InvestAI, includes funding for AI gigafactories, where sophisticated chips will be used to train complex AI models. EU leaders want to make Europe a leader in the technology, with plans for several new AI data centres.

Opinion

Plug, baby, plug: How Europe's AI summit is slowing progress

It would be funny if it weren't so sad: Europe's AI heroics are once again turning out to be lukewarm, vague statements of intent. Worse, the EU is now only at the top of the list when it comes to admonishing and slowing down. One could be forgiven for thinking that the Europeans have no choice but to sulk in the face of the market power of China and the US.

At the AI summit in Paris, European leaders blathered on about "sustainable AI" and clean energy - Macron even coined the droll slogan "Plug, baby, plug" - but these buzzwords hardly conceal their penchant for small-scale tinkering.

US Vice President J.D. Vance rightly warned that over-regulation stifles innovation and called Europe's cautious approach a recipe for mediocrity.

The outcome of the summit: 61 countries signed a non-binding declaration on ethical AI, while the U.S. and the U.K. - the real engines of transformative technologies - opted out, advocating instead for Silicon Valley-style free-for-all deregulation.

Despite all the excitement, Europe's "innovations" are limited to modest investments and endless debates, but hardly the groundbreaking initiatives that have given Silicon Valley its global technological dominance.

In short, the EU continues to think at the microscopic level, while real innovation is forged in the tech-labs of Silicon Valley.

AI-Photo Of The Day

@lcsilva0167 via midjourney.com
@lcsilva0167 via midjourney.com
Prompt:
An impossibly cute tiny lion cub perched on a human fingertip. The cub, no larger than a thumb, is gently cradled by the finger before the thumb, which supports it securely. The cub gazes directly at the viewer with wide, expressive eyes, its soft golden fur accented by faint black stripes. Its tiny, rounded ears twitch slightly, and its small pink nose and delicate whiskers add to its charm. The cub’s tiny paws curl around the finger, as if holding on, creating a sense of connection. The background is a soft-focus natural scene, featuring muted greens with warm sunlight filtering through, giving a beautiful bokeh effect.

OpenAI CEO Altman: "We're not for sale"

At the AI Action Summit in Paris, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reiterated that his company is not for sale - and certainly not to Elon Musk.

On Monday, Musk offered $97.4 billion for the non-commercial part of OpenAI. Altman criticized Musk's repeated attempts to control OpenAI and stressed that the company's mission and operations are non-negotiable. He noted that OpenAI is restructuring to separate its growing business from nonprofit oversight, which is pending an evaluation.

Of Musk, Altman said, "He's an insecure person; I feel sorry for him."

Why it matters:

  • The planned separation of commercial operations and nonprofit oversight underscores OpenAI's strategic approach to sustainable, long-term growth and innovation.
  • Musk's buyout offer shows that he has apparently lost all self-control due to a wounded ego. As the "second strongman" behind Donald Trump, he will leave no stone unturned in the coming months to bring OpenAI under his control.

Read on, my dear:

AI and Tech News

In his ruling, the judge emphasized that Ross was trying to compete with Thomson Reuters' Westlaw legal research service. The ruling could affect how AI companies defend their use of copyrighted content in future litigation.

Meta plans to acquire FuriosaAI

Meta is considering acquiring South Korean AI chip startup FuriosaAI to make up for its lack of Nvidia chips. The company, founded in 2017 by June Paik and started by a Samsung engineer, has achieved higher performance per watt than Nvidia's H100 GPUs with its RNGD chip. The acquisition could be finalized soon to further strengthen Meta's position in the AI technology market.

Tines reaches $1.13 billion valuation

Tines Security Services Ltd, an AI startup for automated cybersecurity, secured $125 million from investors including Goldman Sachs and SoftBank. This values the company at $1.13 billion. Tines plans to invest in research and development and expand its employee and customer base.

Google extends NotebookLM Plus to individual users

Google has introduced NotebookLM Plus for individual users who have subscribed to the Google One AI Premium plan. It offers enhanced features such as more notebooks and chat queries. The subscription costs $20 per month; students over the age of 18 in the US can purchase it for $9.99. Google plans to improve the service in the future by adding support for more languages and a mobile application.

AI tools – paid services vs. free alternatives


Text Generation

GPT-40 → DeepSeek-R1

General Purpose

Claude -> Llama 3

Multimodal Tasks

Gemini 1.5 Pro → Pixtral

Image Generation

Midjourney → Janus Pro 7B

Reasoning

01-preview → Alibaba's Qwen 2.5

Coding

Anthropic Claude → DeepSeek Coder

Why SaaS is dead: The Next Phase of Software Innovation

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella puts it succinctly: AI agents will turn our software ecosystem upside down and could signal the end of traditional SaaS. SaaS applications that rely on simple CRUD (create, read, update, delete) databases with added business logic have long powered our business systems. Now, that logic is shifting to the AI layer, rendering many legacy backends increasingly redundant.

From SaaS to AI-driven workflows

Vertical AI agents elevate automation to a new level. Unlike traditional SaaS tools, these agents are designed to automate workflows.

In marketing, for instance, AI agents can orchestrate campaigns, comprehend target audiences, and optimize personalized messages in real-time.

Customer service is experiencing a similar transformation, with AI predicting needs and proactively resolving issues by converting data analytics into dynamic, conversational knowledge. Recent research by Y Combinator indicates that these vertical AI agents could create markets up to ten times larger than SaaS by cutting labor costs and streamlining operations.

Real-world impact and market examples.

In practice, companies like Momentic are already replacing traditional QA teams with AI-powered testing agents. Salient is automating voice-activated debt collection, while niche startups utilize AI to manage repetitive administrative tasks. These examples illustrate how AI vertical agents not only enhance efficiency but also facilitate significant cost savings. Major companies such as Samsung, Google, and OpenAI are launching groundbreaking applications that highlight this transformation.

SaaS is a strong foundation, but...

While SaaS continues to be a strong foundation, the rapid development of AI agents is redefining enterprise technology. Early adopters will experience substantial benefits in efficiency, personalization, and ROI—even as the inevitable reallocation of labor occurs.

Read on, my dear: