As A.I. Accelerates, Governments Are Increasingly Being Left Behind

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, gathered senior officials for an exclusive meeting at a 19th-century palace outside Brussels this month.The goal was to prepare for a speech outlining the 27-nation bloc’s priorities for the coming year, with artificial intelligence dominating the agenda.The region’s new A.I.

czar, Jim Hagemann Snabe, the chairman of German industrial giant Siemens, outlined ways that Europe could use the technology for economic gain.Others raised concerns about A.I.

safety and growing risks, two people briefed on the gathering said.Since the Sept.4 meeting, Ms.

von der Leyen and her commissioners have been left asking what they can do to address the fast-changing technology, one of the people said.Should they ramp up regulation to address A.I.’s emerging dangers? Or would doing so carry economic and geopolitical costs if other countries did not clamp down as well?They have not landed on any final conclusions, with more discussions among European leaders planned this year.“A.I.

comes with a balance of possibilities and risks,” Ms.von der Leyen said at her State of the Union speech on Sept.

16.“Without addressing these risks, we will never be able to unlock A.I.’s potential.”...