Some argue that critical private entities should also transition from US cloud service providers to European ones
The US government’s decision to restrict foreign access to certain new AI models has strengthened the resolve of European tech sovereignty supporters, who are calling for EU businesses to reduce their dependence on American cloud service providers.
The Commission’s proposed Cloud and AI Development Act (CAIDA) suggests that governments should reduce their reliance on US cloud services, but does not include any binding measures for private companies. But the recent US decision to cut access to the AI models Mythos 5 and Fable 5, which Amazon Web Services implemented immediately, is fuelling calls to strengthen the proposal.
“Europe’s hospitals, energy grids and financial systems run on foreign technology that foreign governments can access, manipulate, or simply switch off”, Maltese S&D MEP Alex Agius Saliba told Euractiv in an email. Saliba added that the Socialist Group in the European Parliament will push to ensure that critical private entities assess the vulnerabilities from their dependence on the cloud.
Frank Karlitschek, co-founder of the German software provider Nextcloud, agreed, arguing that the Commission’s current CAIDA proposal includes “weak” rules for the public sector and no rules for the private sector.
