I'm a European AI researcher in the US. I've seen both sides of the pond. The EU needs serious reforms if it wants to be competitive in AI. Academia in Europe

I'm a European AI researcher in the US. I've seen both sides of the pond. The EU needs serious reforms if it wants to be competitive in AI. Academia in Europe is far behind academia in the US on average. And will be far behind China in a decade or so. European academics generally don't adapt to new technology. They have no reason to with fairly few links to industry, a funding that's based on personal relationships and politics rather than research, and an academic environment that doesn't really emphasize novel research. The same people, do the same things, for decades on end, with little to no progress or change. European academics don't put in much effort to get industry funding since your students are funded by the university much of the time. Faculty hiring is very local and incestuous. German universities hire Germans, and only from a few places. English universities hire the British. French universities hire the French. etc. There are exceptions but it's rare. The European PhD needs to be fixed. 3-4 years isn't nearly enough. It's hurting everyone. The moment someone gets productive they graduate. It's a total waste of time. They need to move to an American-Canadian style 5-6 year PhD. The fact that students are generally not funded by projects and researchers, but departments, also puts a big damper on people's motivation to hustle and publish. Funding for startups in Europe is a disaster. It's really hard compared to the US and Canada, raising multiple rounds is harder, there's little infrastructure for doing it, and universities are little to no help. Rich people just don't have an appetite for risk, better to sit on your old money. This should be fixed by tax laws. Pay is terrible in academia in Europe. Around half of what it is in the US and Canada at many ranks. When you can't live well, why would you stay in academia? The tenure system is a disaster in many places in Europe and drives anyone good away to the UK, Canada, or the US. You have a lot of unpleasant steps where you aren't autonomous. European research is also very closed. Europeans cite europeans, who go to european conferences, and do research with europeans. There are a lot of communities like this that are very closed and 2nd tier compared to international ones. I could go on. Nothing will change any time soon unless governments take action to revamp the university system, university funding, and the tax code to encourage investment/risk. The next century won't be Europe's sadly.