I went out with my lantern yesterday, searching for an honest 'European Tech Champion.' I found only a mountain of paperwork and a few politicians in expensive suits patting themselves on the back in Athens and Nicosia. They tell us that Greece and Cyprus joining the €80 billion European Tech Champions Initiative (ETCI) is our ticket to the big leagues. I say it’s just a more expensive way to buy a seat at a table where the menu has already been decided by Brussels and Silicon Valley.
Let’s talk about this 'Bureaucratic Hydra' they claim AI will slay. Have you seen the latest from AADE? They’ve rebranded 'myPoint' to 'redefine the state-citizen relationship.' In my day, if a tax collector wanted to redefine our relationship, he’d just take more of my grain. Now, they wrap it in the shiny foil of 'digital transformation.' AI isn't killing the Hydra; it’s giving it a facelift and a faster set of teeth. They call it 'citizen-centric.' I call it high-definition surveillance with a better user interface.
While Goldman Sachs whispers sweet nothings about a 'better decade' for equities, the Bank of England is actually being honest for once, warning that AI is a systemic risk. We are building a financial tower of Babel on algorithms that no one truly understands, all while the average citizen is so 'prosperous' they are abandoning new devices for refurbished junk. Is that the 'American Dream' Polestar owners are currently choking on?
The ETCI is supposed to bridge the 'scale-up gap.' But what are we scaling? Are we scaling freedom, or are we just scaling the efficiency of our own obsolescence? We join these 'initiatives' to feel important, to feel like we are part of the 'AI Supercycle' alongside SK Hynix. But look closely: the money flows from the taxpayers to the 'champions,' and the 'champions' eventually sell out to the highest bidder in California or Shenzhen.
We are told AI Native businesses are the future. Perhaps. But a business native to an algorithm is a business without a soul. It’s a business that sees humans as data points to be optimized, not citizens to be served. If we are going to use AI to slay the Hydra, we should start by pointing it at the very bureaucrats who are currently using it to 'rebrand' our servitude.
Ask yourself: When the 'Champion' finally wins, do you get a trophy, or do you just get a more automated tax bill? I’ll keep my lantern lit. The search for an honest man—or an honest algorithm—continues.
