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Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

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Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#891

Post by wheybags »

epolanski wrote: post #828

I'm not understanding, as an European who's been part of multiple startups how's that supposed to boost growth. There's literally 0 startups I've been part of where data protection laws or even the infamous cookie banners have been anywhere near relevant (unless your business was literally profiling). In fact the actors that most opposed those laws have always been non Europeans. Sure, there is an attached cost in ha…

IMO the biggest barrier is internal mobility. The European silicon valley never happened, because people don't want to move around. The biggest single barrier is language. I'm Irish, and young Irish people often emigrate (way more than in other countries). When I look at where my college classmates ended up, it's mostly America or the UK. We also emigrate a lot to Australia and New Zealand. In other words, we only really emigrate to English speaking countries.

Almost nobody goes to France, Germany, Spain, Italy, etc. The mainstays of the European economy. Let alone central or eastern Europe. But if you're a young talented engineer in the middle of nowhere usa, you can just easily move to the bay area without any issue. That cultural unity IMO is America's biggest strength, and the lack of it is Europe's biggest weakness.

Note: I've lived in Ireland, the Czech Republic, and France, so I know first hand how hard it is to move inside Europe, and I understand why people don't do it.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#892

Post by thrance »

game_the0ry wrote: post #825

AI seems like the real deal. I have never seen a technology so quickly and aggressively adopted in corporate america -- every ceo is horny to adopt ai, thinking it will cut costs (read that to mean: "replace you"). They did not have the same fervor for SaaS or cloud, if you recall. You needed sales people for that tech and they were compensated well bc its hard closing a multi year, potentially multi million dollar d…

Wait for the bubble to burst, shouldn't be long now. Bureaucrats are like C-suites, they're very susceptible to hype and trends.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#893

Post by OWaz »

danishSuri1994 wrote: post #110

I sympathize with the startup argument: heavy compliance costs can stifle early innovation. But the solution shouldn’t be “weaker rules.” It should be smarter rules, clearer safe harbors for small actors, browser-level consent primitives for users, and stronger enforcement against dark-pattern CMPs. That keeps privacy meaningful without killing small businesses.

I've worked for startups and established industry giants and being compliant with GDPR did not stifle us in any way at all. It's really not that hard unless the business model depends on profiting off of user data. No good will come from this for the EU.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#894

Post by moooo99 »

vovavili wrote: post #838
matthewdgreen wrote: post #837

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would go farther. Privacy laws seem like an excellent way to tighten the internal European market and develop homegrown competitors, which (one might argue) Europe really needs. If Europe is loosening up those laws, does that help Europe? Or does it help Meta and Google and Microsoft?

This argument in favor of protectionist industrial policy is almost universally opposed by most modern economists, for a good reason.

Something that is good for a country as a whole isn't necessarily good for the economy. On the flip side, being good for the economy isn't necessarily good for the population of a country.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#895

Post by moooo99 »

itake wrote: post #890
kryptoncalm wrote: post #865

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The data [0] begs to differ: in richer countries workers and fewer hours. The gap not shown here is working hours per capita (instead of worker), but I couldn’t find that data quickly. Also, even if your claim were true, I wonder if joining the rate race of working harder is worth it. [0] https://ourworldindata.org/rich-poor-working-hours

I think your data agrees with OP, you're just misunderstanding it. Yes, richer countries work few hours and richer countries also see modest GDP growth. Cambodia's GDP growth is over +5% YoY, whereas Switzerland (and the rest of Europe) has more modest GDP growth. There is some "Work smart, not hard." facet to this, which requires an educated population. The other fascet is developing countries exist in climates heav…

> richer countries also see modest GDP growth.

This is a natural consequence of being an industrially advanced country though.

A lot of GDP growth can come from establishing basic services like a functioning healthcare system, insurance apparatus and financial system. Of course, we can't building out infrastructure like roads, power, etc.

Especially construction can lead to substantial GDP growth, but once you have a basic set of infrastructure and housing in place, growth is much slower and consistent for very obvious reasons.

Once you have that stuff in place, getting consistent growth requires more advanced stuff.

The US is very much an outlier and attributing that soley to a difference in work ethic is ignorant at best.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#896

Post by itake »

evrenesat wrote: post #869
Workaccount2 wrote: post #853

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest hurdle Europe has to face is the cultural shift away from the post-soviet era of "Don't take work too seriously, enjoy life". There is now a full generation of Europeans who grew up in with this mentality, looking down on Americans for their ridiculous work ethic and comparatively meager benefits. But it's not sustainable, and the strain is already becoming obvious. Young Europeans will have to work longe…

IMHO, the US and China’s hurry to expand into every possible corner is unsustainable. Unless we are actually trying to get ready to face an extraterrestrial threat, our endless effort to maximize our tech and become more and more efficient and profitable is unneeded and puts too much stress on earthlings, which is definitely not sustainable. Do you really believe that when we are able to pass production of almost any…

The standard of living in China is bad for most people. IMHO, they need to expand in order to provide the same lifestyle as offered in the USA.

This has the energy of "Why are we building rockets to the moon, when there are homeless people in San Francisco"-vibes?"

> give generous UBI to each and every person

Have you seen the movie Wall-e? I don't think society should strive to outsource all labor to AI and robots, nor is that the final end-state of building robots and AI.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#897

Post by moooo99 »

l5870uoo9y wrote: post #312

The fundamental problem in Europe is the perception that companies are inherently ill-intentioned, requiring micro-management through massive bureaucracy. It is a moralising and irresponsible attitude that older people can afford to adopt, but like so many other things, it hits younger generations mercilessly hard.

> The fundamental problem in Europe is the perception that companies are inherently ill-intentioned, requiring micro-management through massive bureaucracy.

History tells us they are. Well technically, they are not ill intentioned. They just don't care if they do harm on their search for profit

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#898

Post by Workaccount2 »

moooo99 wrote: post #895
itake wrote: post #890

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your data agrees with OP, you're just misunderstanding it. Yes, richer countries work few hours and richer countries also see modest GDP growth. Cambodia's GDP growth is over +5% YoY, whereas Switzerland (and the rest of Europe) has more modest GDP growth. There is some "Work smart, not hard." facet to this, which requires an educated population. The other fascet is developing countries exist in climates heav…

> richer countries also see modest GDP growth. This is a natural consequence of being an industrially advanced country though. A lot of GDP growth can come from establishing basic services like a functioning healthcare system, insurance apparatus and financial system. Of course, we can't building out infrastructure like roads, power, etc. Especially construction can lead to substantial GDP growth, but once you have a…

>The US is very much an outlier and attributing that soley to a difference in work ethic is ignorant at best.

Right, Europe also has a suffocating business environment which is the primary driver.

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#899

Post by epolanski »

asveikau wrote: post #854
epolanski wrote: post #828

I'm not understanding, as an European who's been part of multiple startups how's that supposed to boost growth. There's literally 0 startups I've been part of where data protection laws or even the infamous cookie banners have been anywhere near relevant (unless your business was literally profiling). In fact the actors that most opposed those laws have always been non Europeans. Sure, there is an attached cost in ha…

> an European European starts with a vowel in spelling, but actually phonerically begins with a consonant, /j/, so it doesn't trigger the "an" thing. Similarly some spellings start with a consonant but have vowels (like acronyms, "an SSRI", the name of the letter S, "ess", begins with a vowel) More to the point I agree with what you're saying. This seems like lazy attribution of cause that is so common in American bu…

> European starts with a vowel in spelling, but actually phonerically begins with a consonant

Ah makes sense.

In my head it's never "you"ropean, but "ew" uropean as I'm not a native english speaker and phonetically it's a consonant in english only. In greek, slavic languages, german or latin-derived it's always "ew".

Re: Europe is scaling back GDPR and relaxing AI laws

#900

Post by xeromal »

epolanski wrote: post #899
asveikau wrote: post #854

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> an European European starts with a vowel in spelling, but actually phonerically begins with a consonant, /j/, so it doesn't trigger the "an" thing. Similarly some spellings start with a consonant but have vowels (like acronyms, "an SSRI", the name of the letter S, "ess", begins with a vowel) More to the point I agree with what you're saying. This seems like lazy attribution of cause that is so common in American bu…

> European starts with a vowel in spelling, but actually phonerically begins with a consonant Ah makes sense. In my head it's never "you"ropean, but "ew" uropean as I'm not a native english speaker and phonetically it's a consonant in english only. In greek, slavic languages, german or latin-derived it's always "ew".

That's pretty cool. I'm from the Southeast US (redneck), and it sounds like "Yur-uh-pee-in"
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