European countries are already positioned to ensure data, operational, and regulatory sovereignty, said Ezzat. Technological sovereignty is more challenging, however. “There are four layers, and we can control three out of the four,” he said. “On the technology side, we’re going to have to make the compromise while we’re trying, at the same time, to build our own stack in some places,” he said.
Technological sovereignty spans several layers, said Mati Staniszewski, co-founder and CEO of Polish voice AI startup ElevenLabs, during the panel discussion. This includes energy and compute, as well as foundational models and how these models are applied in production by companies and governments.
He said that partnering with global providers of foundational models makes sense, while European firms can compete and “flourish” further up the stack by focusing on data and AI applications that sit on top of these models.
