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With the OpenAI saga playing out across the pool , the European tech residential area has been waiting for the latest updates as if a new series of “ Succession ” was about to drop . Indeed , events have at times resembled some Greek disaster about the Gods fighting it out , atop Mount Olympus , while us mere mortals watch on . With only a smattering of expectant - scale AI startups such as Germany’sAleph Alphaand France’sMistralin Europe commence the pulsation up ( London ’s DeepMind was absorbed into the Google Borg long ago ) , we ’ve been grabbing the popcorn and watching this unexpected instalment of Silicon Valley from afar .
I probed a few lancinating tech observers , many of them venture capitalist , but almost none would go on the book , perhaps for fear of take out the attention of some Valley AI God in full struggle - mode .
A U.K.-based investor posited that the drama will have electropositive effects on Europe ’s nascent AI sector .
“ This is great news for startup like Mistral , who can probably poach some good employee and catchup with OpenAI . For the AI ship’s company build on OpenAI this will make no major changes in the brusk condition , but will mean the market homogenizes , especially if they lose direction and pore . ”
Another pointed out that after OpenAI ’s much exalt Demo Day the other week , it was seen as “ the most extraordinary variety of clientele , ” but now looks like “ an absolute shit show . ” They likened it to the debacle that was WeWork .
One European VC predicted that the events will have an impact on all term - tack talks : “ I would bear father to become more resistant to board control over chief operating officer permutation and other standardised term . They will intelligibly require ‘ if this can happen to Sam Altman , why should I arrogate it wo n’t bump to me ? ’ ”
At an even more pragmatic point , a lot of European applied AI startups are very reliant on OpenAI , which is ( whatever anyone says ) head and berm above most alternatives . The turmoil at OpenAI seems to be pushing the occupation more into the hand of Microsoft and that could have quite major implications for companies reliant on OpenAI ’s political program , “ especially if that troupe is competitive with or outside the Microsoft ecosystem , ” they point out .
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“ From a platform POV , it is a disaster , ” said another investor . “ So many company are already working with OpenAI , this is like the Facebook , Twitter , etc . API change all over again and possibly high-risk . ”
There was also grumbling about European regulation , and a cautionary word of advice against being too over - reliant on one company , and a non - European one , at that .
“ As we have seen with the heavy - handed regulation coming down from EU - tier , regime wo n’t save us . We need to have more AI champions topically . There is still clock time , but unclear how much , ” said one investor .
Others were more upbeat about the turmoil buying useful sentence for European startup : “ Which is a good thing for European generative AI inauguration as it gives them time to breathe and re - graduate before the next shockwave . ”
Finally , one brave person in the shape ofDN Capitalco - laminitis and managing partner Steve Schlenker did go on the record .
One of his concerns is that admission to the world ’s most successful LLMs will move away from the average inauguration — “ such as those in Europe ” — and toward startups and researcher , mostly local to the U.S. , and they might have to , in future , pass new , yet - to - be - delimit “ screening ” processes , perhaps even delimitate by boards like the one at OpenAI .
Furthermore , if the best and brightest from OpenAI go on to be full - time employee of a paid U.S. mega - company like MSFT — one likely scenario , estimate by Microsoft ’s cover task pass and hundreds of OpenAI ’s own staff signing a letter threatening to quit , then that could have a major impingement on competition . “ The power of the AI movement to stay open to all at a fair monetary value will slump quickly , ” he said .
Meanwhile , the upside of all this topsy-turvydom is that it has been playing out in public on societal medium , for the most part on Twitter / X. As a Warsaw - based VC put it to me : “ It ’s pretty exciting and unequaled that a lot of this dickhead show is happening publically on Twitter . Not possible in Europe ! ”
