Ursula von der Leyen, the current President of the European Commission, delivered the State of the European Union 2026 speech on September 16, 2026, at 9:00 am CEST.
It was naturally heavy on European political theory (center left freedom protected by strength), the economy (need for energy independence, reducing the trade imbalance with China and increasing the effect of sanctions on Russia), and current crises (severe effect of climate change – where this year’s European wildfires and disappearing rivers will be considered mild against future summers: “Europe is warming at double the global rate.”)
She also digressed into the promise and threat of AI, and the danger to youngsters posed by social media. It is these digressions we discuss here.
Artificial Intelligence
“I am an optimist that AI has the potential to benefit humanity if we get it right,” she said; but then warned that the potential benefit comes with “massive risks”. The risks must be tackled before the potential benefit can be achieved.
“These risks have become sharper and come sharper into focus. Models being developed will allow hacking on a level we never thought possible, and they will soon be in the hands of adversaries who see the world very differently than us. At the same time, the dangers of self-improving models are becoming ever more apparent,” using the Hugging Face incident as an example.
“The AI Act is, of course, a crucial piece to put in place guardrails, and it puts Europe in a position to shape global efforts on how to tackle this — so we will step up together with our like-minded partners like Canada, the UK, and others.”
She stressed that controlling the risk is not the same as inhibiting the potential; and that Europe does not need to develop new frontier models to draw benefit from them. “The key is creating the value that AI has not yet delivered: such as moving AI from the screen to the real economy and the real society, on the factory floor, on the hospital ward, in precision agriculture, in our energy grids, smart grids, for autonomous driving, for defense. That is where the real value is hidden.”