06.05.2025 | News AI from Europe

Economic and political relations between Europe and the USA are currently undergoing a severe test. This is causing many people to frown - and perhaps giving some people pause for thought. After all, Europe has become far too dependent on the USA in recent years, particularly in the tech sector. This is particularly evident when looking at the AI landscape: large language models from the USA are widespread thanks to the market power of the tech oligarchs behind them. But what does this mean for Europe?

First and foremost, we need to emancipate ourselves - and as quickly as possible. The ‘old continent’ has long relied on the USA as a trustworthy partner and has often blindly bought the products and services of the high-tech industry there. However, it would make sense to stand on its own two feet and act with greater confidence. In terms of technology, this means finally working towards true digital sovereignty by investing in European cloud solutions and the local AI market. In fact, there are many European AI models and initiatives that deserve support - for example OpenEuroLLM. The project is being driven by twenty European companies, universities and research institutions and is subsidized by the European Commission. The aim is to develop new open source language models that companies and private individuals can use to create innovative AI solutions. What's more, it goes without saying that these language models will comply with the requirements of the EU AI Act. The ambitious project is practically representative of Europe's potential for emancipation and its technological sophistication with regard to GenAI. The OpenGPT-X project with the Teuken-7B language model and the French company Mistral AI have similar footprints. These models are less well known to the public but offer excellent quality.

Anyone looking to use generative AI in their company can therefore use European language models or seek out software solution providers who already operate their software with European AI models. German enterprise search manufacturers that offer intelligent chatbots, for example, also use models from Europe that are in no way inferior to US models in terms of quality. Some models are even characterized by higher speed and better cost efficiency. And ultimately, it is always important that the AI model fits the use case. In any case, European technology providers have nothing to hide.