The European Union is planning to push greater AI-powered green controls onto the general public in order to reduce the energy usage of individual citizens.
Speaking on June 3, Commission officials confirmed they would push for a “full roll-out” of “smart meters” across the continent in an effort to keep control of the bloc’s energy expenditure.
Officials argue that the move will help ensure there is enough energy available for AI data centres at peak usage times without putting the EU’s climate goals in danger.
The body is billing the change as a way of giving citizens more control over their electricity costs, with Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen saying that the introduction of smart meters in Sweden saw ordinary citizens reduce their power use.
“Already today, Swedish households that use electric heating can save up to 40% thanks to demand flexibility,” he said.
“This is the type of positive change we want to bring in our entire Energy Union.”
The proposal is part of the bloc’s wider “digital sovereignty” package.
Aimed at restarting the EU’s stagnating tech industry, a Commission memo regarding the plan that leaked last week indicated the union would push for state-run social media platforms as an alternative to private offerings from the United States.
A claim in the document that the bloc would also support “open source” projects aimed at challenging American companies was meanwhile confirmed on June 3.
According to Commission EVP Henna Virkkunen, Brussels believes that backing what it is calling “open source” software will help give the EU more control.
“It is time we harness what we have in Europe to give us control over our digital future,” she said.
“This is the objective EU Open Source Strategy aims to do.”
The bloc’s definition of what “open source” means has been controversial.
While many in the tech sector reserve the label for software that is free to use, share, and rework without fear of external licensing, Eurocrats have applied the label to software that relies on restricted, privately-owned products.
Such is the case with the EU’s own digital ID age verification system, which requires the user to have a phone approved by either Apple or Google to function.