The EU on Wednesday told European businesses in critical sectors to ramp up their uptake of artificial intelligence and pushed for the bloc to cut its dependence on foreign AI providers.

Although the European Union is falling behind the United States and China, Brussels believes the bloc can still compete in the global AI race.

To achieve this, the European Commission said it was mobilising one billion euros ($1.6 billion) to push key sectors like pharmaceuticals, energy and defence, to promote "European AI-powered" tools and develop specialised AI models.

The majority of the one billion euros will come from the EU's Horizon research programme, the EU executive said, and will be used for projects including deploying autonomous cars and advanced cancer screening centres.

Brussels is plo

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