Has Big Tech Taught the EU to Be Flexible?

November 26, 2025

This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.

Here’s a question that arose in a lunch meeting today (November 19, 2025): Has Big Tech brought the European Union to heel? What’s your answer?

The “trust” outfit Thomson Reuters published “EU Eases AI, Privacy Rules As Critics Warn of Caving to Big Tech.”

European Union regulators demonstrate their willingness to be flexible. These exercises are performed in the privacy of a conference room in Brussels. The class is taught by those big tech leaders who have demonstrated their ability to chart a course and keep it. Thanks, Venice.ai. How about your interface? Yep, good enough I think.

The write up reported:

The EU Commission’s “Digital Omnibus”, which faces debate and votes from European countries, proposed to delay stricter rules on use of AI in “high-risk” areas until late 2027, ease rules around cookies and enable more use of data.

Ah, back peddling seems to be the new Zen moment for the European Union.

The “trust” outfit explains why, sort of:

Europe is scrabbling to balance tough rules with not losing more ground in the global tech race, where companies in the United States and Asia are streaking ahead in artificial intelligence and chips.

Several factors are causing this rethink. I am not going to walk the well-worn path called “Privacy Lane.” The reason for the softening is not a warm summer day. The EU is concerned about:

Losing traction in the slippery world of smart software
Failing to cultivate AI start ups with more than a snowball’s chance of surviving in the Dante’s inferno of the competitive market
Keeping AI whiz kids from bailing out of European mathematics, computer science, and physics research centers for some work in Sillycon Valley or delightful Z Valley (Zhongguancun, China, in case you did not know).

From my vantage point in rural Kentucky, it certainly appears that the European Union is fearful of missing out on either the boom or the bust associated with smart software.

Several observations are warranted:

BAITers are likely to win. (BAIT means Big AI Tech in my lingo.) Why? Money and FOMO
Other governments are likely to adapt to the needs of the BAITers. Why? Money and FOMO
The BAIT outfits will be ruthless and interpret the EU’s new flexibility as weakness.

Net net: Worth watching. What do you think? Money? Fear? A combo?

Stephen E Arnold, November 26, 2025

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under AI, Government, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.