Is Europe Being Left Behind in the Technology Revolution? | IEA Podcast with David Galbraith

On this episode of the IEA Podcast, host Matthew Lesh is joined by David Galbraith, a British architect, designer and internet entrepreneur to ask: Is Europe Being Left Behind? Galbraith argues that Europe's postwar economic model rewarding hard work but providing a massive welfare state is now unaffordable given demographic realities. He sees Europe struggling to adapt to the digital and post-industrial economy, lacking companies on the scale of U.S. tech giants like Google, Amazon and Apple. Cultural factors like greater risk aversion have held Europe back from the kind of technological breakthroughs seen in Silicon Valley. The conversation ranges from Europe's green energy policies and nuclear power to the latest AI developments like large language models. Galbraith sees AI and compute power as key to solving challenges like climate change. He calls for policies that create an environment for private sector innovation and risk-taking, warning against premature over-regulation that could leave Europe on the sidelines of the AI revolution. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insider.iea.org.uk/subscribe