NLP@U period-4 meeting

The period-4 meeting of the Utrecht NLP Hub (NLP@U) will be hosted by the Faculty of Medicine.

There will be a presentation, a round of short pitches, and lunch. The speaker will be Fabian Ferrari. After the talk, there will be a round of short pitches (see information below), and lunch. In addition, there will be a coffee break and plenty of time to network and chat informally. The title and abstract of the presentation will be announced soon.

Talk by Fabian Ferrari: Conditional Computing: Reimagining Europe’s Role in the AI Race

Abstract: The global AI race is often framed in terms of investment and compute power: a competition for deeper pockets and larger models. But the sheer scale of investments by the US and China far surpasses those of the EU, making it unrealistic to compete solely on monetary terms. This talk asks: What if the EU’s competitive advantage lies in values, not in budgets? It begins by outlining Europe’s spending disadvantage in AI. It then argues that focusing only on investments misses how Big Tech’s AI empires are also built on a philosophy of accelerationism and state-as-enterprise thinking. Finally, it proposes an alternative approach for the EU: conditional computing, a new governance framework that attaches public value conditions to AI infrastructure governance.

Pitches and discussion

We are inviting submissions for the pitches-and-discussion section. Participants may submit a tentative title and a description. Each selected participant will have two (2) minutes to either:

1. Describe an idea you are working on, and ask if anyone is interested in discussing this idea with you, or
2. Propose a topic for debate immediately afterwards.

Each pitch will be followed by thirteen (13) minutes of discussion.

Please fill out this form to submit your pitch.

Programme