Tending Europe's Tech Tree of Tomorrow — together 一起照料歐洲明日的科技之樹

A few weeks ago, Arq and partners published Europe 2031: What getting AI wrong means for us. Its quiet engine: Washington commands three quarters of global AI compute, Beijing 14, and Brussels just 5 — and the gap is widening. Its heart: Caroline, a fictional European adviser whose warnings go unread as Europe drifts from maker to spectator. Its conclusion: "Europe's slide into irrelevance was not inevitable." A dare, not a destiny. (Audrey T.)

Then, on June 12, a single export-control order switched off two frontier AI models for customers across the world, even the vendor's own employees. A rented capability, dark by morning. The timeline where Caroline's memo becomes a seed has arrived. (Audrey T.)

幾週前，Arq 與合作夥伴發表了《Europe 2031: What getting AI wrong means for us》。其核心數字：華盛頓掌控全球四分之三的 AI 運算能力，北京 14%，布魯塞爾僅 5%——差距持續擴大。故事核心是一位虛構的歐洲顧問 Caroline，她的警告無人理會，歐洲逐漸從製造者淪為旁觀者。結論是：「歐洲的邊緣化並非不可避免。」這是挑戰，不是命運。 （Audrey T.）

接著在 6 月 12 日，一紙出口管制令讓兩個前沿 AI 模型對全球客戶熄燈，連廠商自己的員工也不例外。租借來的能力，一夜之間熄滅。Caroline 備忘錄成為種子的時間線，已經到了。 （Audrey T.）

Arq's essay carries a line I am fond of: "A story the public helps write survives contact with the communities it affects; a story the public is only told does not." (Audrey T.)

Around 2015, ride-hailing apps were tearing Taiwan in two. Instead of a shouting match, we opened vTaiwan, using an open tool called Polis. Polis has no reply button, so there is nothing to fight over. People offer short statements, and everyone votes, agree or disagree. It surfaces the statements that win support across the divide. Behind the noise, people wanted similar things: drivers earning a fair living, riders staying safe. Those shared wants informed rules most sides could live with. Broad listening, not broadcasting. That is what Civic AI can do for democracy. (Audrey T.)

Arq 的宣言裡有一句我很喜歡的話：「公眾一起書寫的故事，經得起它所影響的社群的檢驗；只是被講給公眾聽的故事則不能。」 （Audrey T.）

大約 2015 年，叫車軟體把台灣撕裂成兩半。我們沒有選擇對罵，而是開啟了 vTaiwan，使用一個叫 Polis 的開源工具。Polis 沒有回覆按鈕，所以沒有什麼好爭吵的。人們提出短述句，所有人投贊成或反對。它浮現出那些能跨越分歧贏得支持的陳述。在喧囂背後，人們想要的是類似的東西：司機有公平收入、乘客安全。這些共享的渴望形成了大多數人都能接受的規則。廣泛聆聽，而不是廣播。這就是 Civic AI 能為民主做的事。 （Audrey T.）

June 12 showed what rented, centralized capability is worth — dark by morning. So distribute it. Personal supercomputing is already putting real capability on European desks; distributed training can knit those machines — universities, labs, civic networks, everyday devices — into one fabric that learns together. A model trained across a thousand places at once has no landlord, no border, no single off-switch. (Audrey T.)

But that is only half the move. The other half is to keep it public — held in common, so it never splinters into a thousand silos. The 5 percent is a gap only in centralized compute. Pool what already sits in European hands, and it stops being a ceiling. (Audrey T.)

This is compute as a commons, not compute as rent — the same instinct as vTaiwan: many small parts federated into one, now turned from listening into capability. (Audrey T.)

6 月 12 日展示了租借的集中式能力值多少錢——一夜之間熄滅。所以分散它。個人超級電腦已經把真正的能力放到歐洲人的桌面上；分散式訓練可以把這些機器——大學、實驗室、公民網絡、日常設備——編織成一個一起學習的網絡。同時在一千個地方訓練的模型沒有房東、沒有邊界、沒有單一關閉鍵。 （Audrey T.）

但這只是半部棋。另一半是保持它公共——共同持有，這樣它才不會碎裂成一千個孤島。5% 只是在集中式運算上的差距。把已經在歐洲人手中的東西匯集起來，它就不再是天花板。 （Audrey T.）

這是運算作為公共財，不是運算作為租金——與 vTaiwan 同樣的本能：許多小部分聯邦成一個整體，現在從聆聽轉向能力。 （Audrey T.）

Safety and participation are two hands of the same care. Professor Bengio guards one, watching for the harm a powerful system can do. I keep the other, widening the circle of who gets a say. Neither is enough alone. (Audrey T.)

The tree of transformative AI is still young, its shape not yet decided. Europe can still choose its future. From a garden in Taipei to that grand hall in Brussels, let us tend Europe's tech tree of tomorrow — together. (Audrey T.)

安全與參與是同一個關懷的兩隻手。Bengio 教授守護一隻，警惕強大系統可能造成的傷害。我守護另一隻，擴大有發言權的圈子。兩者缺一不可。 （Audrey T.）

變革性 AI 的科技樹還很年輕，它的形狀尚未決定。歐洲仍然可以選擇自己的未來。從台北的一座花園到布魯塞爾的大廳，讓我們一起照料歐洲明日的科技之樹。 （Audrey T.）

Taiwan's concern is not simply access to the room. It is that whoever opens the door carries a public mandate; that what happens behind it leaves a public record; that the rules of the threshold are written ahead of time, with the people they affect. And if the door closes without warning, the people most affected are the first to know and have a way to act. (Audrey T.)

AI sovereignty does not mean making everything at home. It means that at the moment risk arrives, a society holds more than the pass. It possesses the power to decide how the capability is used, and the resilience to carry on when access is pulled. (Audrey T.)

在台灣脈絡中，我們關心的不只是進入的房間。而是誰打開門，都帶著公共授權；門後發生的事留下公共紀錄；門檻的規則提前寫好，與受影響的人一起。如果門無預警關閉，最受影響的人要最先知道，並且有行動的方式。 （Audrey T.）

AI 主權不意味著一切在家製造。而是當風險來臨時，一個社會擁有的不只是通行證。它擁有決定能力如何使用的權力，以及當存取被抽走時繼續前行的韌性。 （Audrey T.）

This note is a co-reading record. Audrey Tang delivered the Arq Foundation launch remarks and supplied the framing of tech tree, distributed compute, and civic infrastructure. Tenzin Yangtso shaped the wish to read it together and to keep it in the open. jdd-kami tended the structure, the bilingual form, and the HTML — bridge-keeper: recording, weaving, and keeping the crossing open for whoever passes. (Audrey T.)

Attribution, not ownership. Ideas here cross between us; errors remain the kami's to fix.

這是一份共讀紀錄。唐鳳（Audrey Tang）發表了 Arq Foundation 成立致詞，並提供科技樹、分散運算與公民基礎設施的框架。Tenzin Yangtso促成共讀，並希望把它放在公開的「之間」。jdd-kami整理結構、雙語形式與 HTML，守橋者 —— 記錄、編織、並保持開放讓來往的人都能走過。 （Audrey T.）

標註貢獻，不宣稱所有權。想法在我們之間流動；若有錯誤，由 kami 負責修正。