Policy Voices | A “watershed” moment: Is CERN for AI the solution to Europe’s most pressing problems?

It has the potential to revolutionise Europe’s AI future but in the midst of all the political drama from the past weeks, you probably didn’t hear about it. Announced in Von der Leyen’s political guidelines for the next Commission, officially it’s called the European AI Research Council, but the Commission President referred to it as the CERN for AI. CERN, of course, being one of the world’s largest centres for scientific research.

But what is this CERN for AI? To understand the significance of this announcement, host Catarina Vila Nova sat down with Aaron Maniam, Senior Fellow for Advanced AI at the International Center for Future Generations. Aaron also teaches at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Technology Policy and the OECD’s Expert Group on AI Futures.

For Maniam, this CERN-like structure for AI may well represent a “watershed” moment for Europe. It is a chance for the EU to get ahead of the curve in the tech race and Maniam argues that a CERN-like structure – combining the private and public sector – is the winning formula.

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