Talking Tech Sovereignty with an AI Optimist

While Washington builds tariff walls, Chinese exports and Chinese AI are pouring into Europe. Cristina Caffarra talks to Kyle Chan of the Brookings Institution about “China Shock 2.0”, now hitting the core of European industry, from machinery to chemicals, and why Europe’s narrow, rules-first trade response falls short. They also look at the rise of Chinese open-weight AI models, which offer Europe an affordable route to sovereignty but may come with strings attached as Beijing considers export controls. Chan’s verdict: Europe has more leverage than it thinks, and the lasting answer is building its own models.

Cristina Caffarra is joined by former FTC litigation director Shaoul Sussman to unpack the renewed push to regulate frontier AI. They explore whether concerns over AI safety are also serving the interests of powerful AI companies, the growing challenge from cheaper Chinese models, and the uncertain economics behind huge AI investments. Above all, they ask: who will write the rules—and will regulation deliver accountability or protect the companies it is meant to constrain?

In this episode of Escape Forward, Cristina Caffarra speaks with Shahin Vallée about Europe’s economic and geopolitical choices at a moment of growing pressure. They discuss productivity, AI, industrial policy, China, the transatlantic relationship and global trade imbalances — and ask whether Europe can turn shifting ideas into decisive action before events move faster than policy.

Cristina Caffarra speaks with Yariv Adan, founder of ellipsis Ventures and former Google AI leader, about why he believes AI will expand human potential by making intelligence widely accessible and accelerating scientific and economic progress. They also discuss his AI-native venture capital firm and debate Europe's pursuit of AI sovereignty, weighing the risks of dependence on U.S. frontier models against the need to build competitive European capabilities.

Cristina Caffarra in conversation with Andreas Liebl on the way AI FOMO on “god-like” LLM frontier models is being weaponized in Europe to push US tech economic and geopolitical dominance, alongside the campaign to kill the European sovereignty movement.  The future of AI in Europe may involve different paths, may be about much more than frontier models, from orchestrated agentic structures be architected for organizations using smaller more specialist models (can they deliver powerful results?), world models, causal models, embedding context, recursive self-improvement, robotics & physical AI (which have different requirements from cognitive side). Still a lot to play for – though yes we must build our own compute as it is essential infrastructure.

Cristina Caffarra in conversation with Luis Garicano on a few salient strands of the 𝗔𝗜 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲 today. 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 – will “most white collar jobs” really be “lost in 1-5 years” with Agentic AI? 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘀𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 “𝘀𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗜” 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗲? If we build on hyperscalers’ platforms, models and compute, how will Europe protect value creation? And is this not running 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘁𝘆 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲, 𝗽𝘂𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 for key swathes of our future industrial base? AI adoption must accelerate at all costs in Europe, but it’s going to be quite a ride. And a reckoning for our sovereignty aspirations.

Cristina Caffarra speaks with Andreas Klinger on Europe's Leap Forward

Cristina Caffarra picks out the highlights and her key takeaways from the landmark “Rebuilding European Sovereignty” Conference -Brussels 28 January 2026.

Julius Krein of American Affairs discusses what’s behind the US Administration National Security Strategy document which created such discombobulation in Europe. A rational tour de force of the conservative perception and assessment of Europe – from “civilizational” issues and culture wars to the EU’s “overreach”, defence decline, lack of “course correction mechanisms” to face the obvious economic issues, and finally the “moralizing” instead of “transactional” approach. And if we hate it, “no one really cares”. How many wake up calls do we need?  

𝗖𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗼𝘄 (the “Renaissance man” author and activist) has a 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 on "𝗘𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻" 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. We discuss the 𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗺𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀, but above all: 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲?  Cory traces the collapse of our online experience (from the "good old internet" to the current "enshitternet") to 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 & 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 which in turn allowed entrenchment of surveillance models based on wanton exploitation of our data. What forces could restore discipline on tech firms? Cory is a believer in competition and regulation (together with adversarial interoperability and tech worker power). He is still optimistic about antitrust enforcement and regulation surging across the globe, and praises Europe's "muscular" enforcement...I am not there:  in the wake of the "nothing burger" Google Search remedies in the US, of the FTC's loss of the Meta case, in the week where US trade officials fly to Brussels to put the dilemma starkly: "𝗗𝗠𝗔 𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘀?" "𝗗𝗠𝗔 𝗼𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗹?",  antitrust and regulation are not the name of the game at this point.  Cory remains optimistic - I think it's build or bust. Always super fun with him!