Von der Leyen to invite AI leaders to ‘support’ efforts to ‘pace the frontier’

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will invite the main frontier AI labs to a discussion on how the EU can "support ongoing industry efforts to pace the frontier," according to a draft of her State of the European Union speech seen by POLITICO. The invitation follows calls for a slowdown from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday, backed by xAI CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and von der Leyen will also seek international collaboration on testing and evaluating frontier AI models, extending the invitation to the U.K. and Canada while not naming the U.S. or China. Von der Leyen will say Europe should focus on drawing the greatest value from AI rather than leading frontier development itself, targeting health, transport, agri-food, advanced manufacturing, and defence and space.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to invite the main artificial intelligence companies to discuss industry efforts to impose a slowdown of AI development, she will say in her State of the European Union speech on Wednesday. "I will invite the main frontier labs for a discussion on how we can support ongoing industry efforts to pace the frontier," she is set to say based on a draft of her State of the European Union seen by POLITICO. Von der Leyen will acknowledge the warnings by several top tech bosses in the past week "to pace the frontier." Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday called for a slowdown, quickly getting the backing of the CEO of xAI Elon Musk and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman. Advertisement Von der Leyen is not expected to give her explicitly assessment on those calls, but said Europe was ready to "support ongoing industry efforts" on it. The Commission president will also call for international collaboration on the testing and evaluating of frontier AI models. She is expected to extend that invitation to the U.K. and Canada, but refrained from mentioning the U.S. and China, the clear frontrunners in the AI race. POLITICO reported earlier this week that the EU and Canada are already highly aligned on AI. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is attending von der Leyen's speech on Wednesday in Strasbourg. Von der Leyen is also set to say Europe shouldn't worry too much about leading frontier AI development itself but rather "be the ones who draw the greatest value from it." She added the Commission will focus on five sectors that it sees as gaining the highest value from AI use: health, transport, agri-food, advanced manufacturing, and defence and space.