At this point it's completely outgrageous that the EU, UK, or even Canada can't put forth the funding to develop their own local AI model industry.
1) not a priority
2) expensive as hell
The amounts of capital sunk into AI model creation and service is truly mind-boggling. It also comes with the implication that it'll recoup investment by slashing jobs. For better or worse, those are hard sells in the countries you mentioned.
For good reasons, sometimes. The "all automation is good automation" sentiment on places like HN isn't shared as widely outside this tech bubble. There are very real concerns with historical precedent that only those at the top will benefit from the automation, which is overall bad for society (unless you're a hardcore capitalist and/or one of said capital owners).
For better or for worse, not all nations subscribe to the competition treadmill.
> As tensions between President Donald Trump and Europe continue to simmer, the continent is accelerating its moves to reduce its addiction to US technology. Cities and governments are ditching Microsoft Office for open-source alternatives, shifting to European cloud hosting for local AI, and moving defense data to systems without American involvement. Nowhere has this been more clear than in France.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-eu-is-going-through-a-trump-...
> The Netherlands blocked a U.S. company from buying a Dutch firm that handles its national ID system, saying it would create a “threat to the public interest.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/technology/solvinity-kynd...