Europe’s struggle for relevance in AI, quantum and semicon

Bruegel, the Brussels-based economics think tank, recently examined the patent positions of China, Europe and the United States. They focused on critical technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and semiconductors. The resulting working papers were recently discussed in the Chinese economy-focused podcast ZhōngHuá Mundus (a sub-channel of Bruegel’s podcast “The sound of economics”). Bruegel’s senior fellow researcher Alicia García-Herrero sat down with Claudio Feijóo, an innovation scientist from the Technical University of Madrid, to discuss the findings.

These findings – European weakness on almost all fronts – will come as no surprise to anyone living on our continent. But Bruegel did come up with several new insights. For example, European researchers are considerably slower in replicating patents than their Chinese and American colleagues.