This article is part of a special report on artificial intelligence, The AI Issue.
Europe's plan to ride a new wave of AI innovation into a technological renaissance relies on companies sharing their data with researchers and entrepreneurs.
But will the companies play along?
According to interviews with industry groups representing Silicon Valley, European tech companies and Germany's industrial base, the answer for now is: maybe, but only to a limited extent, and even then only when sharing data will not benefit rivals.
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"We haven't seen any single company speaking up in public saying it was a great idea,” said Alexandre Roure of the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a tech lobby whose members include Google and Facebook.
"When we talk about data sharing, we're not talking about essential data, because companies would never do it — and rightly so" — Thierry Breton, European commissioner for the internal market
The wary — if not openly skeptical — response poses an early challenge to the European Commission, which has placed developing artificial intelligence and ramping up the bloc's digital economy at the top of its priorities for the next five years.
Unveiling the EU's "data strategy" in February, French former tech CEO and Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton offered a vision of a European AI landscape in which large industrial companies voluntarily share troves of data in sector-specific "data spaces" that would be accessible to researchers and other firms.
Tech companies, car manufacturers, electricity firms, public health authorities and heavy industry would all be encouraged to provide the food for this data "buffet," to borrow the expression of Commission Executive Vice President for Digital Margrethe Vestager. This would then allow smaller companies or startups to create new applications.
But less than a month after the plan's unveiling, EU officials have been at pains to explain how the system would work. Data-sharing would not be mandatory, would not concern personal data, would not target Big Tech and would not seek to gather "essential" data gathered by companies, Breton has stated in interviews.
Thierry Breton has been at pains to explain how the system would work | Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images
"When we talk about data sharing, we're not talking about essential data, because companies would never do it — and rightly so," the Frenchman told POLITICO last week.
The question marks over exactly what data would be shared — and under what conditions — have prompted some to question Europe's approach.
“You simply can’t regulate unicorns into existence," said Carl Bildt, senior adviser at law firm Covington and former prime minister of Sweden.
"It’s primarily by fostering a climate of research and entrepreneurship that Europe can avoid losing place further. And Brussels must understand that overregulation might be as large a threat as the absence of regulation."
Big fish, small fish
The Commission has plenty of support from countries, including France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, for its data-sharing scheme. But it's only getting started in trying to bring industry on board.
One case in point: German carmakers. At the heart of Europe's largest economy, Big Auto is the ideal client for Breton's data-sharing scheme, because vehicles producing increasing amounts of data could spur research and innovation in the areas of traffic control, fuel efficiency and autonomous driving.
Yet there is no sign that big carmakers are ready to throw their data into a common pot for rivals to pore over.
At the least, manufacturers would want control over who accesses the data — a cautious approach shared across German industry, which agrees on a simple message for the Commission: no mandatory sharing, please.
“We think it [mandatory sharing] could stifle the willingness for companies to invest in the gathering and refining of data,” said Clemens Otto, from BDI, a lobby for German industry. This in turn, would stifle innovation, Otto argues.
The auto industry is the ideal client for Breton's data-sharing scheme | Ronny Hartmann/AFP via Getty Images
Among other concerns, companies worry that a data free-for-all could land them in trouble with the bloc's data-protection and competition regulators, which would theoretically rule out any scheme that creates an industrial data juggernaut, or anything that would allow companies to trace data back to individual consumers.
Such fear "leads to companies refusing to share their data,” said Michael Dose, also from the BDI.
While companies might be aware of the benefits of sharing, they are very reluctant to do so because “they fear that they are no longer in control of their data,” said Lars Nagel, the CEO of International Data Spaces Association, a German nonprofit trying to create a global standard for data-sharing.
Underlying these concerns are fears that big established companies could quickly be overrun by smaller, nimbler players if they lose control over their data.
“Big players in the old economies that have to open up their data run a risk of being taken over by experienced data players with new business models,” said Susanne Dehmel of German digital lobby Bitkom.
"Data-sharing from the public sector is not enough. You need to give citizens the opportunity to grant companies the permission to use their data” — Saara Malkamäki of Sitra, the Finnish innovation fund
The banking sector's experience with data-sharing offers a telling example of what happens when big incumbents are forced to open up.
“We have a lot of fintech companies in Bitkom, and they were happy to get access to banking data. But of course the banks were unhappy, not only because of fintechs but also because big trade players like Amazon could develop new services with their data,” added Dehmel.
Currently, giants like Siemens and Deutsche Telekom have their own data-sharing ecosystems, which give them control over what is being done with their data.
But smaller firms are being starved of data. For small and medium-sized companies, gaining access to the data of bigger players is a matter of "life and death," said Margarete Rudzki of ZDH, a German trade union for SMEs in the skilled trade sector.
Without data, they cannot develop their business models, or for example do repair and maintenance work — which could lead to them being swept away.
Developing AI know-how
Health is another domain where hopes for data-sharing run high. With vast public health systems, European countries arguably have an advantage over privatized health care systems because they can theoretically mandate sharing between systems.
For example, neighbors Estonia and Finland have started sharing patient data, allowing people to fill prescriptions on either side of the border. But the benefits are limited as long as private companies are not able to access the data.
"Data-sharing from the public sector is not enough. You need to give citizens the opportunity to grant companies the permission to use their data,” said Saara Malkamäki of Sitra, of the Finnish Innovation Fund.
Beyond the question of data-sharing, there are concerns that Europe may be putting too much emphasis on the regulation of AI.
“The key is to do it without being exclusionary or protectionist, and I think so far the philosophy seems to be doing that,” said Chris Padilla, the vice president of IBM’s government and regulatory affairs team, who added that the European data space was a "business opportunity" for the company.
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