Europe Abandons US Tech, Ramps Up AI Sovereignty with Open-Source Push
European nations are beginning to accelerate efforts towards technological sovereignty and distancing themselves from dependence on the United States. This priority has been formalised through a new regulation titled ‘Cloud and AI Development’ (CADA).
Through CADA, European countries are committed to developing domestic industries. Technologies and chips manufactured by US giants are planned to be replaced with technology and chips produced within Europe.
As part of this endeavour, Portugal recently launched its first open-source AI model on Wednesday (1/7) local time, as reported by Reuters. This move follows similar initiatives in other European nations, including France and Germany, where governments are supporting local AI companies such as Mistral AI and Aleph Alpha to provide alternatives to models developed by US firms, including OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.
Rather than being used directly by the general public, these Large Language Models (LLMs) are designed as foundational technologies that can be utilised by public institutions, companies, universities, and researchers to build AI-based applications tailored to their specific needs.
The Portuguese model, named ‘Amalia’, was developed by a consortium of Portuguese universities and research institutions, with support from the government and EU recovery funds amounting to 5.5 million euros (approximately Rp113 billion).
“Europe’s strategic autonomy currently depends heavily on AI. This model will enable us to face the coming decades with greater sovereignty and less dependence [on foreign technology],” stated Prime Minister Luis Montenegro during the launch event.
He noted that Amalia would help increase productivity in both the private and public sectors, including banking, insurance, and telecommunications, while ensuring robust security. “We will continue to invest heavily in this project,” he added.
The Amalia LLM, along with its training datasets and source code, has been released under an open-source licence. Its initial applications include virtual guides for museums in Portugal, decision-support tools for the Portuguese Navy, AI-based teaching assistants for lesson planning, and digital assistants to help the government provide public services to citizens.
Amalia also utilises Portugal’s investments in high-performance computing, including access to the Deucalion and MareNostrum 5 supercomputers, providing the necessary computational power to train and run large-scale AI models.