Thierry Breton, internal market commissioner for the European Union, delivers a keynote at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Angel Garcia | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The European Union is trying to co-operate more closely with Japan on key technologies reminiscent of artificial intelligence, the bloc’s industry chief said, because the coalition looks to scale back its reliance on China in certain areas.
EU Commissioner Thierry Breton is meeting with the Japanese government on Monday, and artificial intelligence will probably be “very high” on his agenda, he said in a video posted on Twitter on Sunday.
“I’ll engage with [the] Japanese government … on how we are able to organize our digital space, including AI based on our shared value,” Breton said.
Breton also said there will probably be an EU-Japan Digital Partnership council, to debate areas including quantum and high performance computing. The EU held an identical council with South Korea last week, during which the 2 sides agreed to cooperate on technologies reminiscent of AI and cybersecurity.
Partnerships with key Asian countries with strong technology sectors come because the EU looks to “de-risk” from China — a unique approach from that of the U.S., which has sought to decouple its economy from Beijing.
A part of that EU strategy involves deepening the connection with allied countries around technology.
Breton told Reuters on Monday that the bloc and Japan will co-operate in the world of semiconductors. Japan is a key country within the semiconductor supply chain, and Tokyo has been trying to strengthen its domestic industry. Last week, a fund backed by the Japanese government proposed to purchase domestic chipmaking firm JSR for around 903.9 billion yen ($6.3 billion).
The EU has also been trying to strengthen its own semiconductor industry across the bloc.
Semiconductors are vital components that go into every thing from cars to smartphones and have potential military applications. Countries all over the world have been reassessing their supply chains, and a few, just like the U.S., have looked to bring semiconductor manufacturing back onshore.
Semiconductors are also key to training artificial intelligence models. AI and chips are seen as two key areas of technology for the long run, which countries try to position themselves to reap the benefits of.
At the identical time, the U.S. specifically has sought to chop China off from critical technologies, reminiscent of semiconductors, through export restrictions and Washington has looked to persuade European allies to affix.
The Netherlands, home to one in all the world’s most crucial chip firms ASML, last week announced latest export restrictions on advanced semiconductor equipment.
