In today’s knowledge economy, technological innovation is the primary driver of economic growth. The convergence of big data, computing, and deep-learning algorithms have launched the AI revolution. At the same time, recent geopolitical tensions have unleashed a global competition for technology leadership over critical technologies. Semiconductor chips that power the modern economy are at the tip-of-the-spear.

In view of these geopolitical and technological developments, setting the appropriate policies, regulation and jurisprudence for technological innovation tops the agenda for many nations. The EU has recently adopted far-reaching legislations in the digital field, such as the AI Act, the Digital Markets Act and the Chips Act. The new legal framework interacts with the existing EU acquis, especially competition and State aid rules. Considering these overlaps, the goals of spurring innovation, protecting competition and technology users, and serving the EU’s technology sovereignty goals are sometimes in conflict with each other.

The TEC Conference will examine how well-prepared the EU is to tackle the policy and legal questions posed by the new and upcoming technology trends. The focus will be, first, on analysing the interaction between the on-going AI revolution on digital markets dynamics and regulation. Secondly, the discussion will examine the recent EU policies adopted to stimulate semiconductors production, their interaction with EU State aid policy, and the role competition policy can play in this.

The 2024 TEC conference is jointly organised by Cornerstone Research’s TEC Institute and the Centre for a Digital Society (CDS) at the European University Institute (EUI).