Some statements just make us gurgle like a drain

From The Guardian:

Europe’s dilemma over AI was rendered in stark terms this week. The head of the continent’s central bank, Christine Lagarde, said Europeans have two options: shun the technology and lose out on growth; or embrace it and become dependent on tools developed by the US and China.

The great debate over AI safety that has erupted in recent days threatens to make the choice moot. If the worst scenarios come to bear – and experts have differing views on this – then the technology will impact the continent regardless.

Europe has largely been absent from the highest levels of that debate, a result of the continent’s longstanding inability to produce a Silicon Valley-scale titan like Apple, Google or newcomer OpenAI. While it is a powerhouse in regulation,

We feel that that “while” would be better replaced with a “because”.

No, this is not just a sneer, it’s an important point. Why do you, or even we, regulate? To stop people doing certain things, to make it more difficult to do certain things, to guide, control and channel what is done. So, the existence of regulation makes it more difficult, more costly, to do these things - that is the purpose of the regulation. To then complain about the effects of the regulation you’ve, we’ve, already insisted upon does seem contrary. For that effect was and is the entire and whole point of the regulation in the first place.

“While” - snigger, gurgle.

Tim Worstall