Europe needs political leadership and top tech talent to adopt AI

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 35:37

   wouldn't that be an opportunity for Europe and say, okay, here, welcome. Build the data centers here. Matthias, I feel like I'm more German than you. I'm just going to put that out there. You're playing the American. I'm playing it. Like, okay, of course it's an opportunity, but it's only an opportunity if it's technically credible. So like, if you asked me, I'm in charge of Germany or in charge of France or some great nation.

2. 36:01

   You have to say, first, we have a crisis. We are going to get the best people in the world to come. We are going to call the best people in the world and say, what would stop you from coming? By the way, I haven't told this to this chancellor, but I've literally told directly or indirectly to every chancellor and every important politician that you can think of for the last 10, 15 years. you got to do what Israel does, what China does, what America would do, what we did after World War II. Like we built our industry on German scientists. Like it's like, and the people who built the bomb, like when we built the bomb, like Einstein writes the president, the massive opportunity begins with, I know we have a problem that is dangerous for the present and future of our society and has to be solved. There's only a political leader in Europe has to make that

3. 36:59

   statement. It would be best if that was Germany for leaving all of our emotional attachments to Germany simply because Germany once had the best tech scene and still is the driving economic motor of Europe and there is no Europe without Germany. Okay. But then, sorry, let me just, then the question is, you're going to have to bring those people over and they're going to have to be the ones distributing the capital, hiring the people, saying how you do this. Of course, what happens is the local people, I mean, Germany has more talent and France is the same thing than any other country per square. Okay. Those people learn how to do it and then build their things themselves.

4. 37:44

   And that's, and by the way, another thing, it's talent, not money. It's like, it is part of the problem. Let me give you a different version. Part of the reason it's hard to do the optimistic thing is every day Europe makes another decision that makes it harder to fix the problem. Okay, Alex, we agree absolutely on the opportunity and on the necessity to bring back to Germany the best talent. And fortunately, we have a lot of people who made their careers, who know how things are working, and who still feel a certain degree of patriotism, or in any case, want that Europe and that Germany succeed.

5. 38:22

   So let's bring them back. Let's take advantage of them, or let's use them where they are. We agree on that. But a fundament for that would be that people believe in the opportunity and believe in the necessity to embrace AI, to be at the forefront of these developments. Could you briefly explain why AI is more of an opportunity than a threat if you think so? Well, I mean, again, I'm just going to start on the battlefield.

6. 38:45

   It's not where you want me to start, maybe. But without AI systems, Russia would have won. And by the way, without pre-AI, but things that can almost do that, the parties that you're very focused on would be running Europe because you would have terror attacks that are rampant. So Europe is already completely existing because of these technologies. Europe, as we know it now with all its problems, would not exist without these technologies being used actively.

7. 39:15

   So that's like the baseline. Then you get to, okay, Germany now has to compete with China. And to do that, it's going to have to rebuild how it builds cars, how it processes chemicals, how it changes its historically dominant industries into industries that can compete against America and China. And it has a limited workforce and migration is failing. Okay. How would you raise GDP where you have very strict laws, but some of which may have to change?

8. 39:48

   you have energy things which probably will change but it's going to take a long time where where migration has not worked there is only one technology that can do this and by the way i tend to think these things should be always asked and answered in the empirical. There are two and a half countries that are embracing these technologies. America, which has GDP growth. In fact, part of the problem we have politically is it works almost too well. It's just not widely distributed. China seems to be working and Israel seems to be working. Where have people not embraced these technologies?

9. 40:21

   And so that's like, but again, if you just start with the core problem Germany has, it's an export culture. Its products have to be better than everyone else's or no one's going to buy them. And you can basically ask Germans, do you think your products are going to be responsible for your economic health, Volsstand, or is it going to be your diplomatic service that's going to deliver that? You're going to rely on German popularity. And so the opportunity, I tend to think the opportunity is that if you want to succeed and thrive, there's only one set of technologies that can do this. How are you going to rebuild your car industry so it's as good as China's? Just start there. Again, people are doing that. We have partners. How are you going