Optimising for happiness in EU technology policy to repay public subsidies for AI

Sandra Wachter examines how European AI policy might assess social benefits alongside economic growth and risk mitigation. General-purpose AI creates uncertain societal risks while benefiting from public funding, tax concessions, infrastructure, data and other forms of subsidy. Reducing risk alone does not establish that technology benefits society, and economic growth does not ensure equality. The talk proposes public happiness as an additional policy criterion: companies seeking public support should predict measurable benefits and be accountable for delivering them. Psychological research on relatedness, competence and autonomy supplies a framework for evaluating those benefits.