Germany's Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil has called on European policymakers to go on the "offensive" when it comes to regulating artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
AI has "great potential," but enacting "sensible regulation" is a key challenge for Europe if it wants to avoid being dominated by the most powerful figures from the US tech world, said Klingbeil, a Social Democrat who is also vice chancellor in Germany's conservative-led coalition government. He spoke at a press conference on Tuesday.
Apart from their extensive economic power, the US "tech bros" have enormous political power and Europe "has become the battleground" because the companies "know that apart from perhaps the US, Europe is the only place that can effectively enact political regulation," he said, in response to a question about Pope Leo's recent encyclical, in which he warned about AI.
"This is a battle ... and one where we must really go on the offensive," he said in Berlin.
"I don't want the future of digitalization to be decided by [Tesla founder and X-owner] Elon Musk or [former Paypal boss and tech investor] Peter Thiel. I want us to have strong European players," he said.
He was open to the suggestion of a digital tax, he said.
The European Commission has launched multiple investigations into the actions of US tech companies such as Apple, Google, Meta and X in recent years, demanding billions in fines.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused the European Union of treating US firms unfairly.