While the world accelerates towards a future shaped by artificial intelligence, the European Union seems busy putting brakes and constraints that risk becoming a cage rather than a guide. On 2 February 2025, when the bans set by the AI Act come into force, a turning point will be marked that could have profound consequences not only for European innovation, but for its position in the global landscape.

The AI Act, with its 144 articles, introduces stringent regulations for practices such as real-time biometric recognition, human manipulation through AI, and social scoring. The noble intent to protect citizens’ fundamental rights is undeniable. However, there is something paradoxical – even surreal – about imposing strict stakes on an area where Europe is already lagging behind, watching the competition between the US and China from afar. While the global technological giants advance unhindered, Europe risks slipping further and further into a marginal position.

The DeepSeek case: a warning sign

An emblematic example of the widening gap is DeepSeek, a Chinese start-up that has shocked the international technology landscape with its AI model, R1. With reasoning and data analysis capabilities that rival – or even surpass – those of American giants such as OpenAI, DeepSeek has achieved astonishing results with extremely limited resources. Not only that, the speed with which it has climbed the app store charts, even surpassing ChatGPT, has shone a spotlight on China’s efficiency and agility in the industry.

This success challenges not only American technological leadership, but also the European Union’s strategic choices. Faced with models such as R1, which are born and flourish in less regulated but highly dynamic ecosystems, Europe appears to be blocked by a web of regulations that, instead of stimulating innovation, seem to stifle it. Of course, it is not only the AI Act that is the problem, and probably not even the main one, but the new regulation represents the tip of the iceberg of a very deep problem: the new rules are intertwined with those of the GDPR, for example, on privacy and data processing, disincentivising any reality committed to the frontier of technological innovation to embark on its own path on this Continent. The impact of the AI Act goes beyond its own rules: it is a sign of what high risk would be paid by those who want to choose Europe for their business in the field of AI.

Protection or own goal?

The biggest paradox of the AI Act is therefore that, in its attempt to protect European citizens from technological abuse, it risks undermining the same opportunities for economic growth and innovation. Without visionary leadership, capable of balancing ethics and progress, the risk is that Europe will find itself watching from afar a revolution it could have led.

Suspending the AI Act

The question now is only one: in Brussels and in the national capitals, is there a ruling class ready to recognise the approaching abyss? Time is running out. If Europe is not to remain stuck behind the closed door of regulation, an immediate rethink is needed. The AI Act must be suspended and the necessary reflection on the regulatory framework for artificial intelligence postponed until a later date. Suspending the AI Act does not mean abandoning ethical principles, but rethinking them with a view to competitiveness and innovation. The world is racing; we cannot afford to lag behind.