Greece is one of the countries shaping the development of the crucial field of artificial intelligence in Europe, according to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ remarks at the Paris AI Summit, held in the French capital on February 10-11.
The highly-anticipated event, officially dubbed “AI Action Summit,” in Paris’ 125-year-old Grand Palais, hosts big-name tech bosses and leaders from various countries worldwide, including Greece, to discuss the future of artificial intelligence.
“We are one of the first countries to have developed a coherent national strategy for artificial intelligence,” Prime Minister Mitsotakis told reporters. “We are among the seven European nations awarded the ‘AI Factory,’ a significant European initiative aimed at developing AI infrastructure across the continent,” Mitsotakis added.
Greece and AI
Mitsotakis announced the AI Factory, named “Pharos” (lighthouse in Greek) in December 2024. The project is part of Greece’s published Plan for Transition to the Age of Artificial Intelligence and aims to position the country as a global hub for AI innovation. Pharos will serve as an AI hub, advancing technology in health, environmental sustainability, culture, and language -priority areas for Greece’s AI strategy. Supported by the Daedalus supercomputer, it will offer a comprehensive ecosystem for AI development.
At the Paris Summit, Mitsotakis boasted that Greece has a deep scientific talent pool active in artificial intelligence, adding that many foreign technology companies have already invested in Greece, establishing large-scale data processing centers and data hubs.
“We are a country that can be at the forefront of smart interventions to be able to control the negative effects of AI, and we are a country that is already using AI to improve the efficiency and productivity of public administration,” Mitsotakis added.
However, according to the EU’s statistical office, only 9.81 percent of Greece’s corporations used AI technologies in 2024, ranking 18th among the bloc’s 27 member states. The EUROSTAT report also found that all EU countries recorded increases in the share of enterprises using AI technologies compared with 2023. Sweden and Denmark recorded the highest growth (14.7 and 12.4 percent). Greece grew 5.83 percent, nearly tripling its percentage within a year.
According to another report however, Greek AI startups are thriving, despite the poor performance of Greek businesses in integrating AI technologies into their operations.
The annual State of AI Report 2024, published by The Recursive, ranks Greece second after Poland in Central and Eastern Europe by the number of AI startups operating.
The two-day landmark Paris AI Action Summit
French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted the two-day summit, which aims to address how to harness artificial intelligence’s potential so that it benefits everyone while containing the technology’s myriad risks.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is attending, along with corporate and governmental leaders from 80 countries, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Organizers had been working on securing countries’ signatures on a joint political declaration, gathering commitments for a more ethical, democratic, and environmentally sustainable AI. However, the United States and Britain did not sign the final statement on Tuesday, February 11, highlighting another divergence in AI governance.
Attending the summit, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, told Europeans on Tuesday that their “massive” regulations on artificial intelligence could strangle the technology, and rejected content moderation as “authoritarian censorship.”
Setting out the Trump administration’s “America First” agenda, Vance said the United States intended to remain the dominant force in AI and strongly opposed the European Union’s far tougher regulatory approach. U.S. President Donald Trump has spoken of his desire to make the U.S. the “world capital of artificial intelligence” by tapping its oil and gas reserves to feed the energy-hungry technology.
At the same time, while the US and China have both made significant investments in developing AI technology, Europe is focusing on the path it wants to take.
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