OpenAI CEO Sam Altman: EU Regulations Could Limit Access to AI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly said that European Union (EU) regulations could limit the region’s access to artificial intelligence (AI).

Speaking Friday (Feb. 7) at an event at the Technical University Berlin, Altman said he’d love to build a European version of Stargate — the recently announced AI infrastructure project in the United States — but that those kinds of AI advancements depend on the EU’s regulations, Bloomberg reported.

“We want to be able to deploy our products in Europe as quickly as we do in the rest of the world,” Altman said, per the report. “I think the European people will have to decide how they want to set the rules for this kind of technology.”

Altman recently said that India is OpenAI’s most important international market, while Germany is the company’s fifth largest market, according to the report.

He said Friday that OpenAI will comply with the EU’s new AI Act, which includes rules around the transparency and risks of AI models, per the report.

OpenAI announced Wednesday (Feb. 5) that it introduced data residency in Europe for three of its products — ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu and the API Platform — to help organizations operating in Europe meet local data sovereignty requirements.

“We look forward to partnering with more organizations across Europe and around the world on their AI initiatives, while maintaining the highest standards of security, privacy and compliance,” the company said at the time in a press release.

It was reported Tuesday (Feb. 4) that European regulators are preparing new guidance covering banned uses of AI as part of an effort to enforce the AI Act.

AI Act provisions restricting moves like scraping the internet to create facial recognition databases went into effect Sunday (Feb. 2), and the European Commission is ready to issue key guidance on how these rules should be applied.

In January, it was reported that President Donald Trump’s announcement of Stargate spurred calls from European CEOs for a similar AI infrastructure initiative in the region.

SAP CEO Christian Klein told CNBC that Europe’s lawmakers and businesses should work to implement AI, as the technology will boost the competitiveness of all industries.