BRUSSELS, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Europe's nominated head of

tech sovereignty and security will work towards boosting the

EU's use of artificial intelligence and "disruptive" technology

for the battlefield.

In written responses to European Parliament questions, Henna

Virkkunen said she would prepare an AI and Cloud Development Act

to counter the EU's growing "productivity gap" with China and

the United States.

The European Parliament will hold hearings for the next

Commission team in November to discuss their new roles and any

conflicts of interest. Parliament must approve every nominee.

"Only 8% of EU businesses use AI, only 33% of our companies

use cloud, and the data centre footprint in Europe is one third

of that in the US," Virkkunen wrote.

The potential new Act would focus on developing energy

efficient technology, prioritising large-scale investments

considered "first-of-a-kind", setting new standards for the

Single Market, and security of supply and cybersecurity.

The CEO of AI chipmaker Nvidia ( NVDA ) said on Wednesday that the EU

needed to accelerate progress in AI as he launched a new

supercomputer site in Denmark.

Virkkunen said the protection of minors was one of her top

priorities and she would tackle the addictive quality of social

media apps that hurt children and adolescents.

"The recently opened investigations against TikTok, X,

Facebook and Instagram on addictive design, dark patterns and

protection of minors need to be vigorously pursued," she wrote.

The European Commission in May decided to open an in-depth

investigation into Facebook and Instagram over child safety.

Meta Platforms ( META ), which owns the sites, says it already

has a number of online tools to protect children.

Virkkunen will also work to develop the European Defence

Union with her peers. The Commission included a Defence

Commissioner role for the first time to build up military

manufacturing capacity next to the bloc's eastern border on the

edge of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Virkkunen said she wants to help fund and scale up

"disruptive" technologies for civilian and military purposes.

"Small deep tech companies can bring real disruptive effect

to the battlefield, but they remain underfunded," she said.