OpenAI CEO Altman in Europe to Scout Future Office

Konrad Krasuski, Bloomberg News

Sam Altman, chief executive officer and co-founder of OpenAI, speaks during an event at the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Microsoft unveiled new versions of its Bing internet-search engine and Edge browser powered by the newest technology from ChatGPT maker OpenAI. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said part of the reason for his current tour of European cities is to discover a suitable location for a new office.

“Poland would be an interesting place,” Altman said in an interview Tuesday when asked about European offices. “We want to do a research and engineering office in Europe, not a regulatory one. We are trying to figure it out. This is part of the goal of this trip.”

The “talent density” of any potential location of a new office is key, Altman told Bloomberg News on the sidelines of an event hosted by the University of Warsaw and the National Centre for Research and Development.

Poland is a hotbed within the IT industry, hosting large engineering hubs for Alphabet Inc., JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Visa Inc., as well as developer CD Projekt SA, creator of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 games.

The CEO’s comments follow his appearance last week in front of US senators, to whom he spoke about a variety of areas where he’d support regulation, including preventing election misinformation and making AI-generated content clear to users. Altman said on Tuesday he supported Europe’s effort to lead a global approach to regulating AI companies.

On stage, he said he’d spoken to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during his trip. The CEO is expected to visit Paris later on Tuesday, followed by the UK on Wednesday.

The ChatGPT boss also said the newly-released mobile version of the AI tool was driving a small but “visible bump” in subscriptions to the company’s paid-for Pro version.

(Updates with context from 3rd paragraph. A previous version corrected the date of the CEO’s talk.)