Sky News examines whether Europe’s growing wariness around artificial intelligence is doing more harm than good. At the Web Summit in Lisbon, “agentic AI” — systems that act independently, like booking travel or managing tasks — has become a major topic of discussion. While powerful, these agents introduce risks such as bias, dataset corruption, and unintended real-world consequences.
Babak Hodjat, one of Siri’s original inventors, argues that people are often too trusting of AI responses, failing to verify whether what the system is saying is actually correct. He suggests that we need to educate ourselves (and younger generations) about what AI can and cannot do. Meanwhile, European regulation — like the EU AI Act — is adding strong constraints on the use of AI, which some believe is slowing down innovation significantly.
Jarek Kutylowski, CEO of DeepL, warns that this caution could have economic costs. He says that if Europe becomes too risk-averse, it may miss out on productivity gains and fall behind other regions in the global AI race. He calls for a more pragmatic approach to regulation that balances innovation with responsibility.
Still, Hodjat emphasizes that caution doesn't mean fear. He acknowledges real risks — but also stresses that “it is incumbent upon all of us to learn what the boundaries are” for AI. For him, the solution isn’t to halt AI, but to better understand it and use it wisely.
