Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrived in San Francisco on Monday evening to promote Greece, but at an Endeavor Greece event he also spoke frankly about the uncertainties surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). In front of roughly 250 founders, investors and operators, he acknowledged he did not have answers to many AI questions. Mitsotakis described part of his Bay Area trip as a fact‑finding mission — he spent the morning visiting Tesla and Sequoia Capital — and said he planned to travel to the U.N. General Assembly in New York later in the week.
Economic case and measurable improvements
Mitsotakis led with economic arguments, stressing that Greece is steadily reducing its debt and, he said, is currently borrowing more cheaply than the United States — a remark he prefaced with a smile and “I don’t know if I should say this.” At the time of the event Greece’s 10‑year bond yield was around 4.3%, compared with roughly 5% for U.S. Treasuries. While part of that gap reflects lower interest rates across the eurozone, Mitsotakis highlighted the contrast with the 2012 debt crisis, when Greek yields topped 40%.
He outlined how public funds have been spent. Of the roughly €36 billion Greece received from the EU’s post‑COVID recovery fund, much went into digital infrastructure: online portals that let citizens handle government paperwork without lining up, and a new supercomputer assembled with Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the port town of Lavrio that he said will come online within months to support AI and scientific research.
Policy changes aimed at tech companies
Mitsotakis listed policy measures that could matter to technology firms: changes to how stock options are taxed, looser labor rules, and significantly lower taxes offered to Greeks returning from abroad for up to seven years. The government has also expanded a range of visa programs to attract talent, though Mitsotakis acknowledged that authorities “still [have] work to do” on processing speed.
He also argued that public universities have undergone a notable shift: he said they long embraced a “radical leftist approach” and looked down on corporations, but now increasingly spin out startups.
AI: candid about uncertainty and cautious steps
The tone shifted when the conversation turned to AI’s societal effects. Mitsotakis was open about not having a finished plan. He noted that Greece will ban social media for children under 15 starting this coming January — a measure other countries are weighing or adopting — but suggested such rules might already be behind the times given the addictive nature of AI chatbots. “Sometimes I feel that we’re already fighting yesterday’s battle,” he said, questioning what it means for children to grow up with digital companions.
On education, Greece ran a pilot with OpenAI intended to reduce teachers’ administrative burden, and Mitsotakis sees promise in personalized AI tutors. He warned, however, that benefits depend on AI not replacing “the hard work of learning the basic skills,” and observed that students are already using chatbots to complete homework.
He acknowledged that job displacement is likely to happen and warned that no government or society is prepared for the speed of change. Regarding calls to slow AI development, he sided with leaders of frontier labs who have asked for a pause: if those building models say they “are not really sure exactly what’s happening with these models,” especially as they self‑improve, policymakers need to listen.
AI infrastructure and local reception
On AI infrastructure, Mitsotakis said Greece has been an outlier. While data centers often face opposition globally because of their electricity and water use, he reported that Greece “has not had any significant reaction.” He pointed to Microsoft building a cluster of data centers near Athens and to AWS’s recent deal with Greece’s largest utility to build the country’s biggest data center on a former coal site — projects he said are welcomed locally.
He also said that some form of “smart regulation” is inevitable and that the United States will largely influence what that looks like, but added that Greece would be happy to host the discussion.
Philosophical perspective and Athens as a forum
Mitsotakis broadened the debate, noting humanity has created “a form of intelligence that is very quickly exceeding the capacity of the most advanced organ that evolution has ever created,” raising fundamental questions about what it means to be human. He argued for convening technologists with social scientists, philosophers and historians and suggested he could think of no better place than Athens — the city where Socrates questioned citizens in the ancient agora — to host such conversations.
Mitsotakis framed part of his mission as winning back talent lost during the debt crisis of the 2010s, and he suggested that with U.S. work visas becoming harder to obtain, more founders might consider hiring in Greece. He also noted that Greece is set to regain developed market status next year from MSCI, the index provider, which he said would strengthen the investment case.
Conclusion
In San Francisco Mitsotakis combined country promotion with candid engagement on AI: he presented concrete fiscal and digital investments, tax and labor reforms, and visa incentives aimed at attracting tech companies and talent, while openly acknowledging the unanswered questions and societal risks posed by rapidly advancing AI technologies.
