OpenAI realizes that engaging with Europe, rather than threatening it, is the way to get what it wants

Chief strategy officer Jason Kwon told Reuters that this wouldn’t be OpenAI’s European headquarters, which begs the question of where those will be. The location of a company’s EU HQ determine which data protection authority has jurisdiction over them, and Ireland’s is generally quite friendly to Big Tech.

What’s more, not having a European HQ causes all sorts of problems for a company such as OpenAI, which deals with an awful lot of personal data. It means OpenAI can be sued over privacy issues anywhere in the EU—the most recent complaint was lodged in Poland, and the ChatGPT maker has already had scrapes with data protection authorities in Italy and Spain. Better to officially set up shop in one place and deal with everything there.

OpenAI’s Dublin office may only have nine vacancies for now, but it’s clear what the firm has in mind for the satellite—the roles include an associate general counsel for EMEA, an Irish policy and partnerships lead, a privacy program manager, a privacy software engineer, and a European media relations lead.

Remember when CEO Sam Altman thought he could threaten to pull out of the EU over its looming AI Act—then, after European lawmakers accused it of blackmail, meekly added the next day that OpenAI is “excited to continue to operate here and of course [has] no plans to leave”? That may seem like a year or two ago (and in AI-evolution-time it probably was) but it was actually a little more than three months ago.

I’d be surprised if a quiet conversation with OpenAI sponsors Microsoft didn’t take place there, but either way, Altman and OpenAI have clearly learned at speed that, when it comes to Europe, engagement is the answer, not threats. And the company’s Dublin announcement comes with evidence of that, in the form of glowing testimonials from Irish politicians.

Here’s Enterprise and Employment Minister Simon Coveney: “In order for Ireland to benefit from AI, it is essential to ensure that we have a strong, supportive ecosystem in place and we believe that companies such as OpenAI operating in Ireland can help build on our foundation to support emerging AI research and innovation, and ensure our workforce is well prepared.”

Not a bad idea to have friends in the room while the AI Act is being finalized (in secret, sadly) by EU rulemakers including the governments of countries such as Ireland. More news below.

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David Meyer

NEWSWORTHY

EV subsidy probe. The European Union has opened an investigation into the Chinese electric vehicles that are flooding into Europe. The cars are relatively cheap, and the European Commission says their subsidization by the Chinese state is unfair. As CNN notes, Europe’s levies on imported Chinese cars are, at 10%, much lower than the U.S.’s 27.5%. The rise of Chinese EVs is widely seen as putting Europe’s hallowed auto industry at risk (as is Tesla) and China claims the new probe is protectionist.

Alphabet layoffs. Google is letting go of a few hundred recruitment workers but isn’t tying this to any wider layoffs, and says it will try to match those affected to roles elsewhere in the mothership. Reuters reports that the move, limited as it may be, represents the first Big Tech layoffs of the quarter, in what has been a brutal year.

Amazon’s AI product descriptions. Amazon isn’t worried about AI-generated product descriptions on its marketplace—in fact, it’s offering to provide them itself. From Amazon’s release: “To get started, sellers only need to provide a brief description of the product in a few words or sentences, and Amazon will generate high-quality content for their review. Sellers can refine these, if they want to.” Brace yourselves. (Bonus read: Coca-Cola’s latest limited edition has an AI-designed “futuristic flavor.”)

SIGNIFICANT FIGURES

€1.5 billion ($1.6 billion)

—The valuation at which European defense tech startup Helsing just raised €209 million ($223 million) from investors such as General Catalyst and Saab. Helsing, which makes software for armies, was valued at €400 million when it was founded a couple years back. Given the current geopolitical climate, defense seems to be one sector defying the VC downturn.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Spies, scientists, defense officials and tech founders can’t agree on how to keep AI under control: ‘We’re running at full speed toward a cliff’, by Chloe Taylor

SoftBank decided against raising prices for its $4.9 billion Arm IPO even though investors oversubscribed it by more than 10 times, by Bloomberg

Former Googler testifies under DOJ grilling that his priority was default status for the search engine on mobile, by Associated Press

LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman dismisses calls to halt AI development as ‘foolish’ and ‘anti-humanist’, by Prarthana Prakash

ChatGPT’s ‘systems are recovering gradually’ after going offline Wednesday morning, by Chris Morris

SEC says NFTs sold by Mila Kunis’s ‘Stoner Cats’—a web series featuring Ashton Kutcher and Jane Fonda—are unregistered securities, by Ben Weiss

BEFORE YOU GO

Casino hacks. MGM’s “cybersecurity issue,” which has caused chaos in its hotels and casinos, is still ongoing, and a group of hackers calling themselves Scattered Spider have claimed responsibility.

However, Scattered Spider told TechCrunch that it denies responsibility for the hacking of Caesars Entertainment, which was notified to federal regulators today. Caesars says its attackers stole the driver’s license and Social Security numbers of a number of customers from its loyalty program database.