Review of our event: Acting with entrepreneurial confidence and strengthening Europe’s sovereignty: Recognising, forecasting, implementing.

On 29 May, together with the Metaverse Europe Foundation, we hosted a ground-breaking event at the CUPRA City Garage Berlin, highlighting the urgent need to act on security while keeping European sovereignty in mind.

The evening began with a welcome from Christian Rücker, CEO of ARDOR SE, and Moritz Baumann, Manager of the CUPRA City Garage Berlin.

Maren Courage, Director of the Metaverse Europe Foundation, emphasised in her introduction from the foundation’s perspective the urgency for entrepreneurs to respond to the digital transformation, which is causing a comprehensive upheaval of many processes through AI.

In his keynote speech, Axel Voss, Member of the European Parliament, gave a comprehensive insight into the current state and future of Europe’s digital security via video message. He emphasised the need for better coordination in the event of cyberattacks, which are numerous and could drive our society apart or paralyse it. It is therefore important to take cyber security seriously as a prerequisite for all digitalisation. Companies need to protect themselves and engage with the use of AI. “Anyone who doesn’t get to grips with AI in their company today will no longer be on the market tomorrow.” Axel Voss also emphasised the need for quick decision-making structures, the clarification of liability issues and the enforcement of rights in connection with AI. He emphasised the importance of standards for the implementation of the AI Act and pointed out that we need measures to detect deepfakes and combat disinformation. He emphasised that Europe must catch up and help shape the future in order to survive digitally. There is also hope, because: “Where we can be leaders in Europe is in linking values and technologies.”

In the subsequent presentations and discussions with Julia Reinhardt, Head of Public Policy at NVIDIA Germany, and Dr Martin C. Wolff, founder of KRITIS und Cyber Beratungsgesellschaft mbH, outlined the status quo from an entrepreneurial perspective and emphasised the need for the safe use of AI and the need to deal with European and global regulations.

The event ended with Spanish tapas from the flying buffet and a get-together where the lively discussions from the presentations led to further talks.

One thing is certain: we will not stop at this point. It will provide further answers to the relevant questions relating to AI, security, standards and sovereignty. Stay tuned.