Europe's AI Safety Paradox: Sidelined from debate while facing inevitable impact

At a moment when artificial intelligence is reshaping the terms of global power, Europe finds itself in an uncomfortable position: rich in regulation but poor in the frontier companies that command the world's attention. Christine Lagarde has named the dilemma plainly — dependency or self-sufficiency — yet a quieter question lingers beneath both options: whether Europe might yet refuse the frame entirely, and ask not what AI it must have, but what kind of future it actually wants to build.