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EU Commission looking at practical consequences of Anthropic decision
- joe_mamba 4mo agoEU will start strongly "monitoring the situation" and "urging for peace" on monday, but only after after lunch and coffee break, then continue talks in september when everyone is back from their 3 month summer vacation, then have a meeting to decide when to schedule a meeting to decide on how to regulate the use of AI, then in 2030 authorize a massive 50k Euros package in funding to EU companies to build a domestic competitor to Claude, available after they fill 50k pages of paperwork, then post self-congratulatory boomer memes on X on how their AI achieved sovereignty, privacy and freedom of speech and can be access by all EU citizens only via their government doxxing digital-ID, just don't call them fat and stupid for this or the police will arrest you for hate speech. /s Yes, I know Mistral exists but they're into the b-2-b sovereign enterprise/government niche, not winning the consumer space. And if history taught us anything from the Blackberry vs iPhone wars is that products winning over the consumer preference end up dominating the market over those dominating enterprise. Simple as. Not many consumers and small-medium businesses will prefer to buy an inferior but domestic products for the sake of sovereignty, if the foreign imports can deliver better faster/results for cheaper. Same how Chinese car brands are now easting European ones on the European market. The free market is brutal and merciless when it gets to be actually free.
- maipen 4mo agoIt's sadly really like this. And they are "always busy".
- sajithdilshan 4mo agoYou know it’s true when the comment is being downvoted by spiteful Europeans
- alecco 4mo agoI don't envy the interns whose job is to explain things to the EU leadership.
- kshacker 4mo agoI think due to a variety of reasons EU and US are on a road to divorce. EU will be wise to make that happen on their terms, but they do not seem to be ready. - Monopolies and related regulation. Of course US has its own companies being treated as monopolies so they will try to save them - Social systems including healthcare - Russia being next door vs far away (for US) - The whole AI buildout - A little bit of Libre Office smattering at the government level Whether you consider US to be guarding its national interests, or whether you consider europeans to be taking a free ride on US's defense systems, it seems like 2 partners who got together for whatever reasons, you can even justify them in history, but history has moved on. I think we are going in 2 different directions for even the next president, however big a U turn he/she makes, I do not think the situation is salvageable.
- dgellow 4mo agoIf there is a divorce the very obvious reason is Trump
- mvdwoord 4mo agoNo responsibilities in the EU at all? I feel trump is more of an accelerant/trigger.. but where two parties fight etc. We did not get to this situation (or Trump for that matter) from a vacuum.
- throw1234567891 4mo agoOkay.
- 4ndrewl 4mo agoBut let's be clear about this - 50% of the voting population of the United States have been giving him their support for a decade now.
- root-parent 4mo agoHis conviction for sexual assault, attracted the votes of 43 million female voters. Just the facts...
- dgellow 4mo agoPlease, for once, react in a meaningful way. No "we are concerned and will consider strongly monitoring".
- krzys 4mo agoI'm seeing this downvoted, but it's - unfortunately - painfully true! European politicians are only ever judged by what they say, not what they do, so there's no incentive beyond the empty words. As a result, this is all they do: they express a populist opinion and jump to the next hot topic, with no actual work put into solving any of the issues.
- includenotfound 4mo agoEuropean politicians are subject to US's (and thus Trump's) orders. The "strong and deep statements" they release are cheap theater. The US is defending Europe through NATO. Until that changes, the EU will continue to be the US's slave.
- bot403 4mo agoI'm not really sure the US can be counted on to defend the EU via NATO anymore. They certainly gave up on Ukraine, which is grinding Russia down to the benefit of the EU and NATO.
- includenotfound 4mo agoThat's what the propaganda would like to have you believe. The RU/UA war was entirely orchestrated by the US. The "Russia will invade the EU" propaganda was useful to scare the EU population, so they'd accept issuing 800B of debt to "rearm Europe" (buying from and enriching American war companies). Debt that will be paid using EU taxpayer money of course. The US government is using their own taxpayer money to buy weapons for Ukraine (money++ for politicians and their war company friends), and then they forced the EU to issue 800B of debt to further enrich their war company friends. Why would the US defend the EU from the Russian invasion, with this insane war revenue?
- willtemperley 4mo agoOdd title, I’m not sure it was Anthropic’s decision. Practically this means Europe has a short window in which to catch up, while the US hobbles its own progress.
- cassianoleal 4mo agoArguably, it was Anthropic's decision to abide by their Government's orders. They could have not done so, but that would likely have consequences they weren't willing to face.
- willtemperley 4mo agoI choose to follow the law, but it’s an obligation not a decision. Framing it like this just misses the big picture entirely. A few words from a tech CEO is all it takes for this government to take extreme measures like this.
- inigyou 4mo agoViewing it as an obligation means you are weak. There are consequences to disobeying the law - a successful person will view them through the lens of cost-benefit analysis, not of dogma.
- willtemperley 4mo agoGood luck with that. I hope you’re successful in your law breaking endeavours with your highly informed cost benefit analyses.
- inigyou 4mo agoI've broken many laws. Have you not? Never crossed at a red light with no cars in sight?
- ifwinterco 4mo agoAt the end of the day it's not really a decision at all, the government has a lot of men with guns, Anthropic has (presumably) low numbers to zero of men with guns. You don't really have a choice if the government decides to play hardball
- HlessClaudesman 4mo agoIf American services can be yeeted on a whim, American services can no longer be relied upon. The Fable debacle seems destined to be the canonical reason why the EU built their own software / AI ecosystem.
- TitaRusell 4mo agoIts especially funny in light the US is always complaining about EU regulations. I would still prefer bureacratic laws to the chaos of the White House.
- HlessClaudesman 4mo agoIndeed. Is America really very far from the Soviet planned economy where the Dear Leader would manage what crops got planted, and who would starve?
- dgellow 4mo agoAnd it’s not like the US doesn’t have complex regulations
- this_user 4mo agoThat would imply that the EU has the ability to build its own, competitive AI ecosystem. At the moment, it's mostly just Mistral, and they have been way behind SOTA for a while now. You can't just legislate this into existence, you also need the money and talent to do it, not to mention the hardware.
- toxik 4mo agoYou _can_ legislate it _out_ of existence though. The competence is there, no doubt. Just not the complete disregard for copyright law that is step 1 of training an LLM. Rules for thee but not for me, classic colonialism. The EU is so intertwined with the US that even Trump isn't enough to force a clean break.
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- IveSeenItAll 4mo agoIt remains to be seen what the actual consequences of the "Anthropic decision" are. Will it be struck down by the courts? Does it matter anyway? (And, from my POV, the answer to that is "No" -- Opus 4.whatever did several fine jobs for me this weekend, and I've yet to be convinced of Fable/Mythos/Whatever superiority). Does "Europe" need a leading-edge model? Yeah, most likely, but chasing the "SpaceX-buys-all-the-Nvida-chips-then-rents-them-out" model is pointless, and the "China distills it all" market seems to be rather saturated as well. So, another vote for "meh", I guess?
- miohtama 4mo agoSoftware development productivity can go up 10x for some industries and tasks with SOTA model. If the EU cannot access such model it means the EU cannot produce software at competitive prices. Software is eating the world and if the EU is not in the software business, it has no stakes in the future.
- IveSeenItAll 4mo ago> If the EU cannot access such model it means the EU cannot produce software at competitive prices. Yeah, but isn't the "common knowledge" that the EU can't produce software anyway, annoying outliers like SAP nothwithstanding? And: "Fable" being 10x (or even 2x, or even 1.1x) better than Opus 4.x is not agreed-upon fact, right?
- inigyou 4mo agoThere is no evidence these models substantially increase productivity. That's a strong statement, isn't it? But so far it seems true. They lower barrier to entry but they don't enable experts to get more things done better. Studies like the METR report show they make experts less productive but with the feeling of being more productive.
- amazingamazing 4mo agoWhy is anyone surprised? Anthropic has been screaming from the roof tops that their models are dangerous. Reap what you sow.
- Filligree 4mo agoRegulation and prerogative, revenge-driven abuse of state power are not the same thing. Anthropic has been asking for a sensible regulatory regime, as you would know if you read their suggestions. What you’re looking at is USG directly integrating with the free market based on personal dislike. It’s purely a revenge tactic due to Anthropic’s disagreement with Hegseth’s desire to use AI for war crimes.
- sajithdilshan 4mo agoThis is a wake up call for EU, but it’s already too late IMO. ChatGPT was launched in 2022 and since then only company in EU which has released a model that is even closer to a frontiers is Mistral. With strong data protection, copyright and privacy laws, it would be a nightmare for any company to train models because activists lawyers would sue left and right. Even by some miracle they come up with the model, again the hardware would be from US companies. It would take years to build a European equivalent of AWS and not to mention the talent required to do that. Given how low the wages in European countries are compared to American counterparts, and also lack of incentives from the governments I truly cannot think of a way how EU can catch up to US or China. Although I would love to be proven wrong
- DeathArrow 4mo agoPoor decisions from politicians continue to bite us harder and harder.
- inigyou 4mo agoIt remains to be proven whether a continent without LLMs would actually be worse off.
- fvdessen 4mo agoThese stories about regulation preventing EU frontier models are frankly complete bullshit. The real reason is much simpler, but also harder to fix. To build frontier models you need VC money. There’s no VC money because VC believe that there is no market for a ‘EU Champion’. There’s no market for a EU champion because internal EU market is not big enough for VC returns. Why invest in EU champion when the US champion is guaranteed to have better returns ? And there’s no public alternative to VC either because that’s national level and national investment in EU doesnt cross national boundaries Mistral actions reflect this, they need returns and they target the market where they can be competitive, which is the scraps the US labs cannot address. This is not enough to fund frontier lab research Also the legal context on regulations is quite different from the US. In the US you can have unlimited damage, that is not the case in the EU, where regulation penalty can never as a matter of principle put the existence of the company in danger, and thus the application of the regulations is always a matter of negociation with the government. You don't have to respect everything all at once, size of the company and ability to actually implement the regulations are taken into account, which means that sartups are usually excempt.
- DeathArrow 4mo agoOur best hope for non US citizens is for the Chinese companies to continue to improve their models.
- sajithdilshan 4mo agoIf the Chinese models surpass US ones, I highly doubt Chinese government would allow non-Chinese to use those models. It seems like the most capable model is becoming a national asset
- alephnerd 4mo agoChina also uses export controls - heck, look at the export controls passed against EU aerospace and defense companies [0] as well as China's rare earths embargo on the EU last year [1]. Additonally, the Chinese AI industry is shifting away from open models and to American-style commercialization as well [2]. [0] - https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3351292/china-places-7-eu-entities-export-control-list https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3351292/... [1] - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/eu-firms-brace-more-shutdowns-due-china-rare-earth-controls-despite-summit-2025-09-17/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/eu-firms-brace-more-shut... [2] - https://m.guancha.cn/economy/2026_06_12_820253.shtml https://m.guancha.cn/economy/2026_06_12_820253.shtml
- monssooon 4mo agoHopefully it will prompt more EU investment into ai and hopefully EU will have something good in the future. EU will maybe never be like the US and maybe the US will be stronger and richer than the EU... But us EU people have nice weather and lots of good things like small cars and bike lanes and soccer teams and socker teams and suckerteams and lots and lots of windmills and sea windmills small tiny farms that are super cosy!!!
- sajithdilshan 4mo agoDon’t forget Deutsche Bahn, and the best railway system in whole world
- root-parent 4mo agoLOL....I just went trough the experience of trying to buy a bus ticket, at the Machines of DB in Munich Airport. I challenged two German citizens, who were kind enough to help, and they could not manage. I think a YT Video about it would take on millions on views. Oh and the bus,no cards...debit or credit...only cash...oh wait...only coins. German precision...the fairytale adults tell mechanics.
- dgellow 4mo agoCan you even buy bus tickets via dbahn? Buses are local, they are different systems. FWIW you’re better off using the mobile apps than trying to use the machines
- root-parent 4mo agoYou are supposed to, and I managed only with the help of sending each screen to an LLM, while in English, but the English of the machines is broken. For example when it gets the moment to pay in German, there would be a link to pay, but it wont enable the pin machine because it says in English "pay via association". You have to be an half genius to understand they are referring in English, via a broken translation, to The Munich Transport and Tariff Association (MVV) that provides the overarching framework for local public transport in Munich, but of course you wont have their card. Oh and despite taking the money ok, when the machine prints the ticket, the machine fails to print the bar code in 60% of the cases... The online info says you can go to the DB counter, and request them to print you a card with the proper bar code, that the bus inspectors need to scan. After 20 minutes on the queue, the most arrogant employee there refused to do it, laughed and said it was not worth it, as the machines fail to print the bar code 50% of the time. It gets you a "Barcodedruck fehlgeschlagen" message in the ticket, so the controls at the bus are forced to ignore it ...or they can decide to give you a fine...German precision my a#%"#&
- alecco 4mo agoThe White House has Sachs and Krishnan and the CCP is full of engineers. In contrast, the EU Commission: - Commissioner for Digital and Frontier: Henna Virkkunen (JOURNALIST, experience PR) [1] - Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy: Stéphane Séjourné (LAWYER, politics, but hey, his mom was a telephone switch operator!) [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henna_Virkkunen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henna_Virkkunen [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A9phane_S%C3%A9journ%C3%A9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A9phane_S%C3%A9journ%C3%... inb4 Sacks is MD/lawyer... but he is a Stanford econ graduate, was PayPal COO, is tech VC, etc.
- gls2ro 4mo agoWhenever there is a discussion about EU there are very similar arguments against EU: - Too much birocracy - Too many taxes - Too much regulation that protects workers And I have to remind myself that people writing this are having a bias: they believe that in a system with few taxes (so less public health care, public eduction, less support for unemployment ...) they are on top, they are the ones with money, they are the ones that win the game. But when they are without money and in a precarious situation they too might vote an extremist that will promise to distribute wealth via the state => more taxes. You have a real example happening these years in a country that proudly promote itself as the best one in the world: low taxes, no healthcare, no free education, little regulations - the most amazing place to start a business. I am not saying everybody is like this, but it is very important to question yourself about where are you seeing yourself: as the one on top winning from the system or the one that has some needs. And second question: how many people will be on one side or the other? Regarding birocracy: this comes exactly from the fact that EU is not a federation so each state needs to have their voice heard and so a lot of regulations/law are complex => more birocracy. Of course EU has a lot of things to improve and a lot of regulations to rewrite and can and should do more for business. But let's not put those two in an antagonist system: you can support businesses while not punishing the people, the consumers, the users and the labor market.
- joe_mamba 4mo ago>And I have to remind myself that people writing this are having a bias: they believe that in a system with few taxes (so less public health care, public eduction, less support for unemployment ...) they are on top, they are the ones with money, they are the ones that win the game. What if your assumption here is incorrect and you are more likely projecting? What if there are other reasons people have? What people are complaining about is that they visually see an increase in taxes and bureaucracy without a proportional increase in what they get back from the government. OFten the contrary. THye pay more and get less. They don't want to cancel all that, they just want their government to be less corrupt and more savvy with how its spends its taxpayers money. >but it is very important to question yourself about where are you seeing yourself: as the one on top winning from the system or the one that has some needs. Yes, that's important to ask yourself, But more important would be to ask yourself what happens as more and more people become parts of the "needs" group, who will be left to contribute to fund those with needs? If you compensate by increasing taxes and burden your fewer remaining productive workers to redistribute their labor to a growing pool of unproductive members with needs, your skilled people emigrate and you're left with just the people with needs. Who is then going to pay for all those needs? Raise a Berlin wall to keep them from leaving? Caring for people in needs is nice, but this isn't' the 1960's anymore when Europe had international monopoly over entire industries and could afford generous welfare. The truth is if you run your government like a charity, you can't compete with major powers that run their country like ruthless corporations or industrial factories. Eventually they will steam roll you with their economic and military might and your former prosperity will be gone in a blink of an eye. The problem with Europe's needs based system is that it's unsustainable within both its current domestic conditions and the international conditions eroding its wealth, but no EU citizen wants to hear that they system they paid for their whole lives is not working.