Europe should avoid regulating artificial intelligence and as an alternative focus its attention on the technology's results, based on the CEO of the German enterprise tech giant JUICE said CNBC on Tuesday.
Christian Klein, who has held the highest job at SAP since April 2020, said Europe risks falling behind the US and China if it over-regulates the AI sector.
Although it’s important to mitigate the risks related to AI, Klein argued that it will be misguided to control the technology while it continues to be in its infancy.
“It is very important that the way we train our algorithms, the AI use cases that we integrate into our customers’ businesses – they have to deliver the right result for employees and for society,” Klein said on Tuesday on CNBC's “Squawk Box Europe.” .
“If you only regulate technology in Europe, how can our startups here in Europe compete with the other startups in China, in Asia, in the USA?” Klein added.
“Especially for the startup scene here in Europe, it is very important to think about the results of the technology, but not to regulate the AI technology itself.”
Instead, Klein argued, firms need a more harmonized, pan-European approach to pressing problems reminiscent of the energy crisis and digital transformation – and fewer regulation overall, no more.
Pleasing result
His comments got here after SAP reported record third-quarter profits late Monday. Shares of the software provider rose greater than 4% to a record high.
The software giant reported total revenue of 8.5 billion euros ($9.2 billion) within the quarter, up 9% year-on-year, as cloud product sales rose 25%.
SAP has raised its outlook for cloud and software revenue, operating profit and free money flow for 2024. The German company has been working towards the transition to cloud computing over the past decade.
In 2016, SAP acquired Concur, the company travel and expense platform, in hopes that the software would move to the cloud.
More recently, SAP has made AI a key focus of its technique to reposition itself for faster growth after higher rates of interest and macroeconomic headwinds depressed technology spending and led to industry-wide layoffs.
In January, SAP announced a restructuring plan affecting over 7% of its global workforce – or the equivalent of 8,000 jobs.
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