Christian Klein, CEO of the software program group SAP, through the annual press convention. Europe’s largest software program producer SAP is at present asserting its figures for the previous monetary 12 months.
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Europe ought to keep away from regulating synthetic intelligence and focus its consideration on the outcomes of the expertise as a substitute, the CEO of German enterprise tech big SAP informed CNBC Tuesday.
Christian Klein, who has held the highest job at SAP since April 2020, mentioned Europe dangers falling behind the U.S. and China if it overregulates the AI sector.
Whereas it is essential to mitigate the dangers related to AI, Klein argued that regulating the tech whereas it is nonetheless in its infancy could be misguided.
“It is essential that how we practice our algorithms, the AI use instances we embed into the companies of our clients — they should ship the suitable consequence for the workers, for the society,” Klein mentioned on CNBC’s “Squawk Field Europe” Tuesday.
“When you solely regulate expertise in Europe, how can our startups right here in Europe, how can they compete in opposition to the opposite startups in China, in Asia, within the U.S.?” Klein added.
“Particularly for the startup scene right here in Europe, it is essential to consider the result of the expertise however to not regulate the AI expertise itself.”
As an alternative, Klein argued, companies want a extra harmonized, pan-European method to urgent points just like the power disaster and digital transformation — and fewer regulation total, no more.
Upbeat earnings
His feedback got here after SAP reported bumper third-quarter earnings late Monday. Shares of the software program vendor jumped greater than 4% to a report excessive.
The software program big posted complete income of 8.5 billion euros ($9.2 billion) for the quarter, up 9% year-over-year as gross sales associated to cloud merchandise jumped 25%.
SAP raised its 2024 outlook for cloud and software program income, working revenue and free money move. The German agency has been working towards a transition to cloud computing over the past decade.
In 2016, SAP acquired Concur, the enterprise journey and bills platform, in a guess that software program would transfer to the cloud.
Extra lately, SAP has made AI a giant focus of its technique because it appears to be like to reposition itself for sooner progress after larger rates of interest and macroeconomic headwinds dented tech spending and led to industry-wide layoffs.
In January, SAP introduced a restructuring plan affecting over 7% of its world workforce — or the equal of 8,000 roles.
