Notices by Joanna Bryson, blathering (j2bryson@mastodon.social)

Denmark fumes over new US envoy to Greenland

US President Donald Trump's newly named envoy has said he hopes to help "make Greenland part of the US." Denmark, which controls the autonomous island, is "deeply angered" according to its foreign minister.
https://www.dw.com/en/denmark-fumes-over-new-us-envoy-to-greenland/a-75267414

This is the trap many Democrats are currently in – they produce pie charts to show that the majority of immigrants snatched off the streets are not criminals, but they do not say that to detain 65,000 people is an authoritarian act. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/29/chicago-ice-oppression-us-community-immigration-raid?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

India's drought robs girls of their chance at an education

In many regions of India, water shortages mean girls have to walk miles to a water source instead of attending school. Drought and dried-up wells force families to make tough decisions.
https://www.dw.com/en/indias-drought-robs-girls-of-their-chance-at-an-education/g-74792336

In our paper, "Is there an AI Cold War", @helenamalikova and I showed that the EU was absolutely building AI, on par with China as measured through WIPO patents and the market cap of companies that hold those patents. That was 2020, but it's still true, here is the unpublished updated data:
https://online.ucpress.edu/gp/article/2/1/24803/117647/Is-There-an-AI-Cold-War

#digitalsovereignty

There's certainly a problem with the US domiciling & failing to regulate a few transnational utilities, but AI is much more than those few companies.

Roland Lescure
French Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Industrial, Energy and Digital Sovereignty, is much better! Claims to be aligned with Wildberger, but talks about the need to enforce and support DSA & DMA.

next
Henna Virkkunen
exec vp for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, EC
says DMA & AIA being enforced.
#digitalSovereignty

Ironically, the wifi sucks here. #digitalSovereignty

First speaker: Karsten Wildberger
DE Fed Minister for Digital Transformation & Government Modernisation

Absolutely horrified to hear BS about "EU only buying" and "too much ex ante legislation." The EU digital governance has been built over decades on observed harms, and the EU is passing China on both WIPO AI IP and the market capitalisation of the companies that hold it.

Here we go #digitalsovereignty

#digitalsovereignty interestingly, the wifi is OK now, as long as you don't go to a new website. I think they must be really carefully checking any new site being accessed, e.g. my publications page...

#digitalSovereignty
Anne Le Hénanff, Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Affairs, France – we are being too slowed down by standards writing. But for some reason she wants to slow down the #AIA rather than recognising regulatory capture by the standards process (I warned about that in 2022: https://data-en-maatschappij.ai/en/publications/paper-belgian-and-flemish-policy-makers-guide-to-ai-regulation )

Wildberger talks about how exciting it was to watch Trump destroy regulatory capacity and herd non-White Americans into private prisons. No, he says it was thrilling to watch Trump sign the US AI action plan and how the US loves and embraces risk and technology, and the EU should do the same. Does he know that the rest of the US market has been in decline, only five heavily hyped companies keep the US looking OK for several years- this isn't just Trump #digitalSovereignty https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:tkbweudpy6tvzjqdiza4z3p5/post/3lijaiasdrk22

old: industry 4.o new: "physical ai"

"put your blinkers on and cross the river feeling the stones.

Cristina Caffarra, Expert in Digital Markets / Euro Stack Initiative
stack is only chips, we need to regain contol on this.
we did a complete wrong term when we thought regulation would give us an industry [no, we thought it would give us a large, solid, sustainable, secure market, and we were right. Last I knew she took a lot of money from Apple and Microsoft?]

#digitalsovereignty

Timotheus Höttges, CEO, Deutsche Telekom

we used to have global values chains now: tech nationalism
we had physical ownership, now we have digital access, who owns?

we used to have proprietary systems, now everything is about openness and interoperability, setting the standards defines the access and quality; is this us?

old: digitalisation; new: superinteilligence he gives EU zero for this. "Ai is able to reason, ai is able to create, it's creating autonomous systems"

#digitalsovereignty

Still some standard lines – not enough "growth financing" after you've started up, not enough people who can work on the whole value chain. Everyone says the EU has so much money and savings, & we need to put more of it into getting companies to IPO. I worry there's to much focus on "exits," and not enough appreciation of a cozy, stable blanket of long-term webs of SMEs. Hyperscaling indicates utilities, needing heavy regulation, not ordinary market participants. #digitalSovereignty

Next panel #digitalsovereignty is less depressing, some winners in quantum & robotics & VC see Europe's advantages & advances.

Startups, Investors and Government

Thomas Steffen, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWK), Germany
Chloé Poisbeau, COO, Alice&Bob
Marc Wietfeld, CEO, ARX Robotics
Romy Schnelle, Managing Director, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF)
Thomas Courbe, Director General, Ministry of Economy and Finance, France

I'm kind of agreeing with someone (Vanessa Cann?): the race isn't over it's barely begun. Well, unless you look at the #climateCrisis; it's possible large-scale tech innovation will end within 30 years or so & AI started in the 1950s. But for sure outcomes are unpredictable in periods of enormous inequality & yet enormous digital accessibility like now. Anything could come up anywhere in the world, which is why the US harms itself when fighting its EU siblings in democracy. #digitalsovereignty

Final #digitalsovereignty panel before lunch: Europe: The Continent of AI Opportunities

Vanessa Cann, AI Leader, Entrepreneur, Business Angel
Christian Klein, CEO, SAP
Arthur Mensch, Founder and CEO, Mistral
Robin Rombach, CEO and Co-Founder, Black Forest Labs
Christel Heydemann, CEO, Orange Group

lots of idioms being thrown around.

Surprisingly, Rolf Schumann, Co-CEO, Schwarz Digits
Octave Klaba, CEO, OVHcloud
are kind of boring after all that (which I only reported, didn't entirely agree with, but Höttges in particular was quite the speaker.) Caffara though does pound on the idea of government procurement at a minimum being localised, says that's fair since the whole world does it (?) and calls BS on people saying that there is in fact adequate products out there she says they still need to be built. #digitalsovereignty

How does letting children have wallets on their phones link up with those trying to prevent children and therefore everyone from having #cybersecurity?

#digitalWallet #digitalSovereignty #chatControl #encryption

More speakers:
Roberto Viola, Director-General, DG Networks, Content and Technology, EC
Kristina Yasuda, Product Owner, SPRIND
Anne-Gaëlle Baudouin, Executive Director, ANTS
Agnès Diallo, CEO, IN Groupe
Oliver Lauer, CDO, Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband

Am I the only one who doesn't like having my phone near readers? Is this really all cybersecure in all circumstances? I feel a lot safer waving cards and circulating cash #digitalsovereignty #cybersecurity #digitalWallet #personalSecurity

We're back to hear more bashing on the regulation that's helping us not demolish our own security like the US is and UK has. This time from Ralf Wintergerst, President, Bitkom in the context of

The EUDI Wallet: A Key Enabler in Building a Digital Europe Rooted in Sovereignty, Trust and #Interoperability

(everyone is talking about interoperability today but no one can pronounce it :-D I shouldn't joke my German and French are also terrible.) #digitalsovereignty #digitalGovernance #AIEthics