An invitation to develop artificial intelligence. Mario Draghi raises a new alarm about the future of Europe and asks EU institutions to act to encourage the use of these technologies. The former prime minister notes how the topic is often absent “in discussions”.
“Europe is experiencing a moment of truth”
“Credible estimates suggest that artificial intelligence could substantially raise the growth path of advanced economies. If the spread of AI follows the US digital boom of the late 1990s, productivity growth could be higher than here by just under a 0.8 percentage point per year,” Draghi explained in his speech at the inauguration of the academic year of the Polytechnic University of Milan. “If it followed the spread of electrification in the 2020s, the improvement could approach 1.3 points. Even the low end of these estimates would represent the most significant acceleration Europe has seen in decades.”
Draghi’s alarm: “The only way is a pragmatic federalism”
According to the former Prime Minister, the European Union risks “stopping” if it does not act in time: “Artificial intelligence may only be a tool as is often said, but what makes it exceptional is its ability to spread throughout the economy much more rapidly than previous technological revolutions, so the divergence between countries that embrace innovation and those that hesitate will widen significantly rapidly in the years to come, and this is why Europe is experiencing a moment of truth today. If If we don’t close this gap and we won’t adopt these technologies on a large scale, Europe risks a future of stagnation with all its consequences.”
“Seductive illusion to see growth less essential”
The former president of the European Central Bank (ECB) explained how AI can help reduce “some of the inequalities that most impact people’s daily lives”. Draghi gave as an example some American studies according to which “triage and flow management tools” with artificial intelligence “have reduced waiting times in the emergency room by around 50 percent”.
The former Prime Minister noted how growth passes through increased productivity: “In practice it means new technologies and the diffusion of new ideas. There is a seductive illusion according to which growth would be less essential. Once a high level of development has been reached, the decline in population could allow an increase in well-being even if the economy stagnates. But this is not true in general and in particular for countries that carry a high level of debt.” And according to Draghi, there is an aspect that must be kept in mind: “What matters for debt sustainability is the overall size of the economy. If the economy stops growing while interest continues to accrue, the ratio between debt and gross domestic product will increase until it becomes unsustainable, at which point governments are forced to choose between pensions and defense, between preserving the social model and financing the green transition.”
