Question 1

Does the U.S. still have a lead in AI models after DeepSeek?

Accepted Answer

_U.S. and China are tied on models, but America leads on applications._

On the math level, on the computational side, we don't have a big head start anymore. We are at an equal playing field in models. It's like an arm's length race. However, if you lift it up beyond specific computational benchmarks, the guts of the systems, the processes, the whole package, and the application developer ecosystem, America has got a little bit more of its act together. The probability that the industry vertical solutions are going to be U.S. born and scaled still feels right, even if on a specific benchmark there's mathematical parity. Winning a benchmark doesn't get you a prize. You've got to have products and services that can be scaled.

— [AI, Innovation, and Risk, with Aneesh Chopra](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2025-02-19-ai-innovation-and-risk-with-aneesh-chopra/) · _The Keynote on AI_

Question 2

How do biases in narrow AI systems create real-world harm?

Accepted Answer

_AI systems enforce human prejudices at massive scale._

Narrow AI amplifies existing biases at scale. In parole decisions, computers were meant to remove human bias, but when fed biased data, they kept more minorities in jail. Loan application systems with few women in training data couldn't correctly handle female applicants. The stop and frisk program in New York used a computer to select precincts, but it was racially unjust. When you remove skin color from the data, the system became even more skewed. There's a logical data science explanation for this.

— [Bias in, bias out: Addressing the impact of bias in AI](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2023-06-07-bias-in-bias-out-addressing-the-impact-of-bias-in-ai/) · _The Edge_

Question 3

How does accountability work when AI agents are doing tasks for us?

Accepted Answer

_You remain accountable for your AI agents, like a CEO for employees._

If people write an email and that email is wrong, who is accountable for it? Should I say it was my AI agent? Not quite. It was me who trained and set up and focused an AI agent. We talk about the new role that all of us become managers or CEOs of many agents. If that description is true, then the accountability lies in you, the CEO. When something happens at a traditional corporate, the CEO might lose their job if somebody of their employees did not do the right thing, because ultimately they are responsible.

— [From Google to Cornell: Rethinking AI Workflows | Lutz Finger | Build AI Podcast 17](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2026-04-16-from-google-to-cornell-rethinking-ai-workflows-lutz-finger-build-ai-podcast-17/) · _Build AI_

Question 4

How does the EU AI Act build in flexibility to adapt as technology changes?

Accepted Answer

_Delegated powers and co-regulation let the AI Act evolve over time._

The EU AI Act is not rigid and set in stone forever. We have more empowerment through what we call Delegated and Implementing Acts. The executive, the European Commission, is empowered to take certain measures if necessary. For example, we have a threshold of 10 to the 25 flops for models. If the Commission feels overwhelmed or there are too few models in scope, we can change the threshold up or down. We can provide guidance and change it. A large part is co-regulation, working with standardization organizations and stakeholders to flesh this out in a way that makes sense.

— [SZ 139: AI in the EU Ft. Yaad, Gerard, Florence, Julie, & Lutz](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2024-12-09-sz-139-ai-in-the-eu-ft-yaad-gerard-florence-julie-lutz/) · _Silicon Zombies_

Question 5

How is Europe positioned in the global AI race compared to the US and China?

Accepted Answer

_Europe's talent, market size, and research create competitive advantages._

Europe is not badly positioned because it has important strengths. There are more engineers per capita in the EU than in the United States or China. Europe has a very large and rich single market, bigger than the US with more people. Europe is also very strong in research with a very high number of publications and excellent universities. The European population is on average very well educated and therefore likely to uptake technology. These factors give Europe a solid foundation for AI development and adoption.

— [AI in the EU, with Lucilla Sioli](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2025-04-24-ai-in-the-eu-with-lucilla-sioli/) · _The Keynote on AI_

Question 6

Is AI hurting people with non-Western names?

Accepted Answer

_Concrete bias outcomes in hiring and promotion._

> The junior analyst who keeps pushing the conversation forward finally gets seen, even though she never had the corner office. Tools like Granola, Read.ai, Fireflies, and Avoma now routinely track talk time and participation, and firms like Amazon and Meta are folding AI-surfaced contribution into how they review people.

— [If Your Name Isn't Western, AI Could Cost You The Promotion.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/lutzfinger/2026/05/25/if-your-name-isnt-western-ai-could-cost-you-the-promotion/) · _Forbes_

Question 7

Should AI be regulated?

Accepted Answer

_Lutz's view on AI regulation._

> But regulation doesn't happen in a vacuum. The EU has regulated that gender should not be used in AI models — even though this may lead to less effective risk distribution and higher overall costs. As a society, we may be willing to pay that price, but what if other societies are not? Data is the lifeblood of AI.

— [Emmanuel Macron On AI: We Are Regulating Ourselves Out Of The Market](https://www.forbes.com/sites/lutzfinger/2024/10/22/emmanuel-macron-is-right-about-ai-over-regulatingi-have-no-doubt/) · _Forbes_

Question 8

What about deepfakes?

Accepted Answer

_How society will adapt to synthetic media._

> As AI lowers the barriers to content creation, abuse is also becoming more feasible. Deepfakes — AI-generated images, videos and audio designed to mimic real people — pose serious risks. Already in 2022, I demonstrated how easily they can be created. This increases the risk of misinformation, identity theft and political manipulation.

— [Goku, A Chinese Open-Source Model, Challenges OpenAI And The U.S.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/lutzfinger/2025/02/11/goku---a-chinese-open-source-model-challenges-openai-and-the-us/) · _Forbes_

Question 9

What are the three main activities the European AI Office is responsible for?

Accepted Answer

_The AI Office balances regulation with supporting European innovation._

The European AI Office has three core responsibilities. First, we support innovation by implementing policies for research and innovation in the EU, including the AI continent action plan published a few weeks ago. Second, we're responsible for implementing the AI Act, which provides rules for developing and using AI, particularly when it carries risks for violating fundamental rights and safety. Third, we promote the European approach to AI internationally by representing the European Commission in multilateral forums and discussions with non-European countries.

— [AI in the EU, with Lucilla Sioli](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2025-04-24-ai-in-the-eu-with-lucilla-sioli/) · _The Keynote on AI_

Question 10

What lessons from social media regulation are shaping today's AI discussions?

Accepted Answer

_Social media's harms taught us to regulate AI before it's too late._

Julie Owono notes that the conversation we're having today about AI is probably the lessons we've learned from social media. When Facebook launched, there was this famous phrase, move fast and break things. At the time, we didn't think about the negative externalities. Innovation was central. Now we are all in this room to discuss regulation, which is historically a quite interesting and big step in the right direction. We may not all agree on the details, whether lawmakers understand technology or technologists understand the importance of protecting democracy, but there is agreement virtually around the world.

— [SZ 139: AI in the EU Ft. Yaad, Gerard, Florence, Julie, & Lutz](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2024-12-09-sz-139-ai-in-the-eu-ft-yaad-gerard-florence-julie-lutz/) · _Silicon Zombies_

Question 11

What makes the grid so complex and difficult to manage compared to other infrastructure?

Accepted Answer

_The grid is an electron highway with no traffic lights or routing._

The grid is mankind's largest and most complex machine. It is a continuous supply and demand balancing mechanism connecting generation with demand across various voltage levels. Electrons follow the laws of physics, from high potential to low potential, like a river system. There are no stop signs, and we cannot assign electrons an IP address and route them easily. The grid is also very opaque, with not enough sensors and monitors. Most of it was built during the post World War II period. Now it is becoming a two way system with distributed solar and wind, which becomes extremely complicated to manage.

— [AI Needs Power, the Grid Needs AI, with Josh Wong](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2026-04-02-ai-needs-power-the-grid-needs-ai-with-josh-wong/) · _The Keynote on AI_

Question 12

Why did Elon Musk try to buy OpenAI, and what was he really trying to accomplish?

Accepted Answer

_A calculated disruption disguised as an acquisition attempt._

Elon was likely making a power move to disrupt Sam Altman's fundraising. OpenAI is transitioning from nonprofit to for-profit, and by putting a price tag on the nonprofit side, Elon made Sam's fundraising deal look bad. Sam is trying to raise 40 billion at a 300 billion valuation. Elon's offer was probably driven by pettiness, but also because his own AI efforts, Grok and XAI, haven't gained traction like Mistral, Anthropic, or DeepSeek. Some saw it as an attempt to catch up, similar to when he called for an AI pause, which people interpreted as buying time.

— [SZ 159: AI, Innovation, & Risk Ft. Lutz Finger](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2025-04-04-sz-159-ai-innovation-risk-ft-lutz-finger/) · _Silicon Zombies_

Question 13

Why did you decide to teach AI and create educational programs at Cornell?

Accepted Answer

_Understanding AI enables ethical deployment and smart business decisions._

I've been teaching at Cornell for over 10 years because AI is impacting all of us, everywhere. We saw deepfakes of Taylor Swift and Russia using AI to meddle in U.S. elections. My aim is to explain AI to everyone because only if we understand it can we deploy it ethically and use it in ways that make money for businesses. I wrote a book and started these activities alongside my real job because we need to understand AI to use it responsibly and effectively.

— [AI, Clones, Deep Fakes, and Neural Networks](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2024-09-12-ai-clones-deep-fakes-and-neural-networks/) · _The Keynote on AI_

Question 14

Why does AI fairness matter and where does it fail?

Accepted Answer

_Bias examples and demographic effects._

> Merkel is a boy and that Joe Biden is both a "man" and a "woman"? Those are the insights you get if you feed Angela and Joe's images into Microsoft Azure's Vision API.

— [President Biden Is Man, Woman And 40 Years Old - Why We Need Algorithmic Transparency](https://www.forbes.com/sites/lutzfinger/2021/02/04/president-biden-is-man-woman-and-40-years-oldwhy-we-need-algorithmic-transparency/) · _Forbes_

Question 15

Why does the EU believe governments, not just tech companies, should regulate AI?

Accepted Answer

_Society, not billionaires, should decide how AI shapes our lives._

As Gerard de Graaf puts it, who elected Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, and Sam Altman to make decisions on our behalf? These technologies have real implications on people's lives, and these are decisions that collectively as a society we should take. The industry has its own incentives. There's a race to the market, and you need to be first. In the internet, if you come in number two or three, you're a loser. So there's tremendous incentive for industry to roll out the latest generation. If you don't regulate, the decisions will be taken by industry. Done correctly, regulation brings legitimacy to how these technologies work.

— [SZ 139: AI in the EU Ft. Yaad, Gerard, Florence, Julie, & Lutz](https://www.lutzfinger.com/transcript/2024-12-09-sz-139-ai-in-the-eu-ft-yaad-gerard-florence-julie-lutz/) · _Silicon Zombies_

Question 16

Why is energy the AI race?

Accepted Answer

_Energy and infrastructure as constraints._

> What wins the AI race? UX? Access to users?

— [The Missing Moat In AI: Your Eval Data](https://www.forbes.com/sites/lutzfinger/2026/05/26/the-missing-moat-in-ai-your-eval-data/) · _Forbes_

Q&A, Policy & Ethics

Does the U.S. still have a lead in AI models after DeepSeek?

How do biases in narrow AI systems create real-world harm?

How does accountability work when AI agents are doing tasks for us?

How does the EU AI Act build in flexibility to adapt as technology changes?

How is Europe positioned in the global AI race compared to the US and China?

Is AI hurting people with non-Western names?

Should AI be regulated?

What about deepfakes?

What are the three main activities the European AI Office is responsible for?

What lessons from social media regulation are shaping today's AI discussions?

What makes the grid so complex and difficult to manage compared to other infrastructure?

Why did Elon Musk try to buy OpenAI, and what was he really trying to accomplish?

Why did you decide to teach AI and create educational programs at Cornell?

Why does AI fairness matter and where does it fail?

Why does the EU believe governments, not just tech companies, should regulate AI?

Why is energy the AI race?