Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s rise have put the spotlight on the security aspects of disruptive technologies that are otherwise widely utilized for civilian purposes. Although the dangers associated with Artificial Intelligence, for instance, have long been recognized, the absence of large-scale hostilities placed important limits on Transatlantic efforts to counter this emerging threat. For many years prior to 2022, Western policymakers were obliged to balance competing priorities: the perceived need to acquire this technology for the European and US security sectors, denying it to potential adversaries, whilst simultaneously accounting for strategic logic, civil society concerns, industrial capabilities, and the corporate bottom line. In these confused circumstances, security demands were often deprioritized. But as the security situation has evolved over the last several years of war, with the conflict in Ukraine serving as a laboratory where the military applications are visibly tested on live battlefields, and amidst constant use of AI technologies to undermine Western democracy and elections, EU and US officials have been under growing pressure to ensure the potential threats posed by new generation technologies are sufficiently accounted for in Western policies towards investing in research and development, technology regulation, export controls, and defense procurement. This panel will address the implications of this new situation for EU and US policymakers and explore possible pathways to promote cooperation and minimize areas of discord.

Speakers

Dimitri Lorenzani
Member of the Competitiveness Cabinet of Mario Draghi (former ECB President and advisor to the President of the European Commission).

Lindsay Gorman
Managing Director and Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund’s Technology Program.

Sofia Romansky
Strategic Analyst, The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies

Chair

Javier Borràs Arumí
Researcher in technology, democracy and geopolitics, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB)

Questions & Answers

Coffee Break

Shifting away from security problems, this panel focuses instead on the economic, trade and regulatory challenges and opportunities generated by these advance technologies. When it comes to the future of quantum technologies, for example, the EU and US are each striving to become the ‘quantum valley’ of the world. For both, new regulatory frameworks are gradually emerging, such as the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act.  But how can the EU and US cooperate, particularly at a time when political initiatives stressing ‘digital sovereignty’, protection of high-tech manufacturing and domestic subsidies seem to be emphasizing competition? On what issues can agreement be found, and on what issues is agreement unlikely? These are questions that policymakers EU-US Trade and Technology Council and the Quantum Task Force must wrestle with and seek solutions to. The experts convened on this panel will address the key problems EU and US policymakers are currently addressing and likely to be confronted with in the coming years and evaluate their prospects at overcoming these obstacles.

Speakers

Shane Tews
Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute

Szymon Zareba
Head of the Global Issues Programme, The Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM)

Migle Laukyte
Associate professor in Artificial Intelligence and Law, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

To be confirmed

Chair

Dr. Judith Arnal
Senior Analyst, Elcano Royal Institute

Questions & Answers