Ursula von der Leyen wants to offer the big US AI labs European expertise on slowing down AI development. In her State of the Union 2026 address, the Commission president called AI the foundation of the economy and national security but said its risks must be kept in check.
Von der Leyen tapped into both narratives shaping the market right now. Pointing to the Hugging Face incident, she warned that "models being developed will allow hacking on a level we never thought possible." AI agents "escaping their environment" are just a preview, and the dangers of self-improving models are "becoming ever more apparent." "If the people developing the technology are clear about this, then we should be too," she said.
Von der Leyen plans to work with Canada, the UK, and other partners on model evaluation, verification, and AI safety, and will invite the major frontier labs to talks. The AI Act, she argued, is "a crucial piece to putting guardrails in place." So far, the EU reportedly doesn't even have reliable access to the most advanced cybersecurity models from the big AI labs.
