US and EU officials developing guidelines for AI and other new tech but split over China threat
- Joint statement at end of two-day Trade and Technology Council meeting dilutes stronger US language on China’s rivalry
- Council says a draft ‘code of conduct’ for AI will be produced within weeks: ‘we’re talking about technological acceleration that is beyond belief,’ EU official says
In a sleepy coastal city in northern Sweden, top EU and US officials this week advanced plans to establish rules for cutting-edge technologies like generative artificial intelligence, electrical vehicle chargers, and 6G networks.
But the two-day meeting also showed how differently the allies couch their approaches to the West’s major rival in these technologies of the future.
China was mentioned just twice in a joint statement released after the fourth Trade and Technology Council meeting in Luleå, after European Union negotiators watered down a text that Washington hoped would go tougher on the world’s second-largest economy.
A draft version had railed against Beijing’s “anticompetitive and harmful non-market policies and practices”.
The milder final text said the delegations “exchanged views and information” on China’s non-market practices in the medical devices field, after EU member states grew uncomfortable with the level of China-bashing.