Trump’s Second Term Sparks Debate at Europe’s Web Summit 2024

LISBON (AP) — Fake news got a bad rap at Europe’s biggest tech conference, Web Summit 2024. However, looming over the endlessly festering question was what a second Donald Trump term would mean for technology- the question most salient for Europe.

Amid the near-constant stream of announcements about AI advances and regulatory challenges, such panels as “A New Trump Era” and “EU, the Ball Is in Your Court” discussed some of the geopolitical shifts likely to shape the global tech landscape.

Because Elon Musk, for instance, was appointed to Trump’s cabinet, speculation over Big Tech’s influence on U.S. policies has been rampant. An accusation of Trump’s stance as “America First” will thus increasingly become correlated by experts with the rising chasm between U.S. and EU innovations. Antoine Jardin, CTO of French startup Arlequin.AI, warns, “The U.S. distances itself from the global AI development, which makes Europe strengthen its ecosystem.”.

For European startups, the AI Act has been a silver lining. Anne Christin Braun of Germany’s ZOLLHOF incubator was confident that Europe would build “trustworthy AI” where innovation is balanced with solid data protection. According to Investor Andreas Urbanski: “It’s an intelligent starting point.

But the challenges are many. Paula Gonzalez of Sustanya, CEO, pointed out that U.S. startups have much better access to funding in the United States and absorbed $120 billion in 2023 compared to Europe at $45 billion. “The U.S. has the capital to scale big while Europe struggles to compete,” she said.

Many of the European startups that have grown their profits using U.S.-centric policies encourage joint cooperation with Latin America and Africa for potential loss coverage. To date, Europe’s tech sector is optimistic but cautious as it waits to transition to the events of politics and innovation around the globe. 

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