Adam Leon Smith

I have 1k followers on here and nobody has liked any of my posts for 4 months. My posts get plenty of engagement on other platforms...

Are you all bots?

Is this just a very handsoff engagement platform?

Can anyone hear me?

....

Briefly tuned in to US politics this evening to see the NRA, the Obamas and Marjorie Taylor Greene all agreeing with each other.

Guess the US is finally overcoming its polarised politics.

European Alternatives Overview of non-European products and companies that we list European Alternatives for

🛒🇪🇺💪 The best time to quit your dependence on the US was years ago.
The second-best time is TODAY (not the day after tomorrow).
#BuyEuropean 🇪🇺🇩🇰🇬🇱🇺🇦🇪🇺💪

✅ buy-european.net/en/alternati...
✅ european-alternatives.eu
✅ hardno.eu
✅ www.goeuropean.org
✅ euroalternative.co
#Grønland #tariffs #greenland #trump

Time for European Anti-Coercion instrument, ACI now, Dear
@vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu
@andriuskubilius.ec.europa.eu
@kajakallas.bsky.social
@ec.europa.eu

- ban X, Grok and Foxnews right away
- high tax on Google, Meta, Amazon, Tesla revenues
- boycott #FIFA2026
- stop to US weapon buys

EU ambassadors have been summoned to an emergency meeting in Brussels on Sunday over Greenland and U.S. tariff threats.-Reuters

This

Article by article, how Big Tech shaped the EU’s roll-back of digital rights | Corporate Europe Observatory In a new analysis we trace Big Tech's fingerprints on the Digital Omnibus proposals - a major deregulation of EU digital laws including the GDPR and the AI Act. They are helped in this attempt by the ...

"In a new analysis by Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl, we trace Big Tech's fingerprints on the Digital Omnibus proposals - a major deregulation of EU digital laws including the GDPR and the AI Act. They are helped in this attempt by the Trump administration and the European far right."

The Liz Truss Show - Behind the Scenes

Just wow. @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy came out swinging in this article. He's right though and that's the coolest part.

Visual EU AI Act standards tracker live I was contacted by some readers asking for a diagram reflecting the CEN-CENELEC JTC 21 work programme supporting the EU AI Act.

open.substack.com/pub/adamleon...

Oh my word….

The click bait merchants at the Telegraph are having an absolute field day right now! 🙄

Shall we take a look at the *reality* behind this sensationalist article?

Go on, you know you want to! 😜

🧵

1/25 (1/1)

Is AI harder than cement? Is the EU AI Act being delayed? Based on recent reports, the EU AI Act isn't being delayed, yet, but there are significant delays in the harmonised technical standards that companies rely on for compliance guidance.

adamleonsmith.substack.com/p/is-ai-hard...

Task-level AI assurance The missing piece in the conversation

I wrote something for the first time in a while.

AI assurance needs to move beyond generic process frameworks into task level measures:

open.substack.com/pub/adamleon...

FACT: Conformity assessment bodies can carry out their activities on the territory of third countries. The NANDO database shows that they can also based in other countries - e.g. Australia, Canada and Japan

"Decision 768/2008/EC sets out that conformity assessment bodies must be located in the EU in order to test to EU regulations"

FACT: This is true. National accreditation bodies are non-profit regulators, they "check the checkers". Why would anyone benefit from regulators being competitive?

"Regulation 765/2008 requires each Member State to appoint a single national accreditation body that can accredit conformity assessment bodies and prohibits competition among Member States’ national accreditation bodies."

FACT: That's not a real policy.

"new policies implemented by the European Commission, such as a refusal to reference underlying standards developed outside of Europe"

FACT: As a non-EU national participating in the standards drafting process, along with many others, I beg to differ.

"[European standards organisations] generally exclude non-EU nationals from participating in their standard-drafting process. In the limited instances where non-EU nationals do participate, they are not allowed to vote."

FACT: Cooperation between ISO/IEC and CEN-CENELEC is codified in the Vienna and Frankfurt agreements, which can and DO allow for parallel development and identical adoption as harmonised standards.

"[European standards] can only be developed through three European Standards Organizations (ESOs)"

FACT: European standards place exactly the same burden on all producers.

"U.S. workers and exporters thus face additional burdens in accessing the EU market not faced by domestic producers in the EU and often not faced by EU exporters when accessing the U.S. market."

FACT: The application of harmonised or other standards remains voluntary, and the manufacturer can always apply other technical specifications to meet the requirements. The presumption of conformity is optional, but a highly beneficial tool for reducing compliance costs for EVERYONE.

"Products regulated by the EU must conform to these EU-specific regional standards in order to benefit from a 'presumption of conformity' with the EU’s essential regulatory requirements."

The US has published its 2025 Foreign Trade Barriers report. It takes a hard swipe at the European Standardisation system. I appreciate that it covers a wide range of topics, from bananas to AI, but there are a few statements in there that really need correction.

ustr.gov/sites/defaul...

France and Germany unveil Docs, a homegrown alternative to Google Docs The Trump administration has set out to drastically reshape the relationship between the US and Europe. In response, Brussels is scrambling to adapt to this new reality,...

I have said before that many services provided by US big tech firms can be easily replaced, given enough motivation.

search.app/rDp29

This has to be right. Starmer's summit on Sunday has become a potentially decisive moment. If Europeans don't throw their weight behind Ukraine and behind a massive and immediate increase in their defence efforts (& damn the deficits), Europe will find itself at the mercy of Putin & Trump.