OpenAI “catalyst” for startups, says European executive, amid startup application layer concerns

OpenAI is a “catalyst” for European startups, according to one of its top European executives, despite admitting there is “tension” between the ChatGPT developer and its European startup clients over OpenAI launching rival products. Tricia Troth, head of go-to-market, startups EMEA, OpenAI, responded to a question about OpenAI potentially shifting more from selling AI model access to owning the applications built around the technology. Troth said: “We are here to be the catalyst for most of these startups. That is what we want to do. We actually work very closely with a lot of startups where we see that kind of tension, bringing them into the fold." Troth pointed to Swedish legaltech Legora as an example in which OpenAI works with a startup it arguably competes with, after OpenAI launched a dedicated legal offering Astra for Law earlier this year. Troth said OpenAI and Legora co-developed a legal plug in together. Experts believe that European AI application layer startups could face