Open source in Europe: This is a pivotal moment in technology. Artificial intelligence has the potential to reshape the world, boosting human productivity, accelerating scientific progress, and adding trillions of dollars to the global economy. However, as with any innovative leap forward, some are better positioned to benefit than others. Gaps are already emerging between those who have access to this extraordinary technology and those who don’t.
That’s why a key opportunity for European organisations is open source AI. This ensures that power isn’t concentrated among a few large players. The internet largely runs on open-source technologies, as do most major tech companies. We believe the next generation of ideas and startups will be built with open source AI because it allows developers to incorporate the latest innovations at a low cost and gives institutions greater control over their data. It’s the best chance to harness AI to drive progress and create economic opportunity and security for all.
Meta is marking time
Meta open sources many of its AI technologies, including its large language models (Llama), and public institutions and researchers are already using these models to accelerate medical research and preserve languages. With more open source developers than the United States, Europe is particularly well-placed to make the most of this wave of open source AI. However, its fragmented regulatory structure, riddled with inconsistent implementations, hinders innovation and holds back developers. Instead of clear rules that inform and guide how companies do business across the continent, our industry faces overlapping regulations and illogical guidelines on how to comply with them. Without urgent change, European businesses, academics and others risk missing out on the next wave of technology investment and economic growth opportunities.
Spotify is proud to be considered a European tech success story, but we are also acutely aware that we are still one of the few. Looking back, it’s clear that our early investment in AI made the company what it is today: a personalized experience for every user that has led to billions of discoveries of artists and creators around the world. As we look to the future of streaming, we see enormous potential in usingopen source AI to benefit the industry. This is particularly important when it comes to how AI can help more artists get discovered. A streamlined regulatory framework would not only accelerate the growth of open source AI, but also provide crucial support to European developers and the wider creator ecosystem that contributes to and thrives on these innovations.
EU privacy regulators are causing delays?
Regulating against known harms is necessary, but preemptive regulation of theoretical harms for nascent technologies like open source AI will stifle innovation. Europe’s complex, risk-averse regulation could prevent it from capitalising on the big bets that can translate into big rewards.
Take the uneven application of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This landmark directive was intended to harmonize the use and flow of data, but instead, EU privacy regulators are creating delays and uncertainty and are unable to agree among themselves on how the law should be applied.
For example, Meta has been told to delay training its models on the content publicly shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram, not because any law has been broken but because regulators haven’t agreed on how to proceed. In the short term, delaying the use of data that is routinely used in other regions means that the most powerful AI models won’t reflect the collective knowledge, culture and languages of Europe, and Europeans won’t be able to use the latest AI products. These concerns are not theoretical. Given the current regulatory uncertainty, Meta will not be able to release upcoming models like Llama Multimodal, which can understand images. This means European organizations won’t be able to access the latest open source technologies, and European citizens will be left with AI built for someone else.

A gap to be bridged
The stark reality is that laws designed to increase European sovereignty and competitiveness are achieving the opposite effect. This is not limited to our industry: many European CEOs across a range of sectors cite a complex and inconsistent regulatory environment as one reason for the continent’s lack of competitiveness. Europe should simplify and harmonize regulations by leveraging the benefits of a single but diverse market. Just look at the growing gap between the number of homegrown European tech leaders and those from America and Asia, a gap that also extends to unicorns and other startups. Europe needs to make it easier to start big companies and do a better job of retaining its talent. Many of its best and brightest minds in AI are choosing to work outside of Europe.
Open source in Europe
Europe needs a new approach with clearer policies and more consistent enforcement. With the right regulatory environment, coupled with the right ambition and some of the best AI talent in the world, the EU would have a real chance to lead the next generation of technological innovation. We believe open source AI can help European organisations make the most of this new technology by levelling the playing field, and we hope the EU doesn’t limit the possibilities we’re only beginning to explore.
Though Spotify and Meta use AI in different ways, we agree that thoughtful, clear and consistent regulation can foster competition and innovation while protecting people and giving them access to new technologies that empower them. While we can all hope that, with time, these laws will become more refined, we also know that technology moves fast. On its current course, Europe will miss this once-in-a-generation opportunity. Because the one thing Europe doesn’t have unless it wants to risk falling even further behind, is time.