AI Austria monthly: February'25 Update
First major milestone for a European startup legal entity, new report on AI in Vienna, book releases, call to actions & more
The year of the snake is about to start. We wish you a happy lunar year. Read our latest edition to get up to speed on exciting developments in Austria, progress on EU inc and many call to actions.
🚀 Latest Developments
🇪🇺 AI Austria x European Accelerationism x EU Inc
In recent months the discussion on how to rejuvenate the European economy gained renewed attention. While this may not be strictly an AI topic, Europe’s gap in AI infrastructure and startup investments isn’t just growing—it’s accelerating.
The European AI Act, which has just come into force as we speak, is often blamed for this trend. However, it’s more of a symptom than the root cause. The real drivers behind this troubling gap are red tape, a lack of strategic vision, and underdeveloped capital markets.
Simply complaining rarely drives change, which is why we actively seek partnerships with initiatives and organizations that share our mission: empowering AI entrepreneurship and adoption in Austria and Europe. Last summer we chose “Europe: Stagnate or Accelerate“ as the topic for our annual State of AI event ft. keynote speaker Andreas Klinger, Hermann Hauser and Andrea Traversone (NATO Fund). The consensus was clear and unanimous: Only by tackling all three levers we have a chance of turning things around, but the window of opportunity is rapidly shrinking.
To put action where our mouth is we were among the first to support the EU Inc. petition, an initiative to create a single, pan-European startup entity …and well, what should we say: just 2 months later the petition, which gained tremendous support across the aisle, was handed over to the EC in Brussels.
The surrounding buzz, which also is reflected in Mario Draghi’s exchange with the people behind the initiative during the assembly of his report on European competitiveness, was able to put it on the agenda of Ursula von der Leyen. “cutting red tape” and establishing a Europe-wide startup entity under the 28th regime became a priority. We are still very early in the process, but it’s still amazing to see how fast an important topic can be brought to the ECs attention, if it is well prepared, presented and founded in an actual need. Expect more news like this in the coming months and years.
🚀🤖 New Report: The Viennese AI Ecosystem is Booming
Vienna’s AI ecosystem is growing rapidly, with groundbreaking projects, pioneering startups, and businesses actively shaping the future with AI. The newly released Vienna AI Report by Vienna Business Agency highlights key innovation hubs, emerging trends, and real-world applications driving progress in the city. » read more
🧭 Silicon Valley Playbook – A Practical Guide to AI Excellence
AI is fundamentally transforming workflows, business models, and organizational structures. Nowhere is this shift more evident than in Silicon Valley, where the playbook for the coming decades is being written.
This Silicon Valley Playbook is the result of insights, experiences and learnings from Executive Learning Journeys over the past year. It provides real-world applications of AI agents and robotics, strategic opportunities, risk assessments, and actionable checklists » check out the free guide
🦾 CTA: How is AI shaping Austria’s businesses? Your insights matter!
Fraunhofer Austria is conducting two key studies on AI adoption, and your input can help shape the future of AI in Austria.
AI in Austrian Companies 2025 – How are businesses leveraging AI? What challenges and opportunities lie ahead? Your participation helps provide a detailed overview of AI adoption and emerging trends. » Take the survey
Special AI Survey for Carinthia – How is AI transforming industries and daily work in Carinthia? Share your perspective on efficiency, job roles, and innovation. » Share your insights
🚀 Call for startups: MOI2025 INNOVATION DAY – Finance Meets in Vienna!
On June 3-4, 2025, top executives, brokers, investors, and startups will gather at Palais Berg, Vienna, for the #MOI2025 INNOVATION DAY under the theme “Collaboration Drives Innovation!”. This event offers cutting-edge insights on AI in finance, digital transformation, and customer service, alongside high-profile keynotes and panel discussions featuring GENERALI, UNIQA, VIG, and more. A major highlight: the #MOI Startup Award, where the best startups pitch live for audience-voted prizes. » wanna join the event or pitch your startup? check out the event page
✈️ Partner content: Executive AI Learning & Investment Journey – Silicon Valley
Join a group of 6 top executives for a high-impact AI investment journey in Silicon Valley. This is not just a tech tour—it’s a strategic deep dive into AI innovation with 20+ exclusive meetings with top startups, investors, and researchers.
Pre-Trip Masterclass – Define your investment focus
Silicon Valley Week – Meet AI’s brightest minds & top startups
Post-Trip Masterclass – Turn insights into concrete investments
interested? » more info and application
📚 Book Releases
🤝 How can organizations harness collective intelligence?
In Collective Intelligence, authors and Predictores.ai co-founders Prof. Dr. Uwe Seebacher and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christoph Legat, along with 20 international thought leaders, provide a comprehensive guide to collaboration, innovation, and predictive intelligence. Published by CRC Press, this book offers cutting-edge methods, real-world applications, and strategic insights for leaders looking to shape the future of their industries. » more info
⚖️ AI ethics are no longer a “nice-to-have”— but a necessity.
In AI Ethics & Human Factors in AI, authors Martina Gaisch and Isabella Mader explore the foundations of AI ethics while providing practical tools for responsible AI development. Originating from university courses, this book introduces innovative models, compares human and AI decision-making, and delves into key concepts like Emotion AI and cognitive biases in AI interactions. » more info
Additionally, a podcast series by MAINUFACTUR (in German) accompanies the book, with eight episodes—one for each chapter. » You can find the playlist here
📒 KI.Recht.Einfach
Now that AI competence is practically mandated by the EU AI Act, Andreas Lederer and Johann M. Lunzer present a hands-on guide for anyone looking to use generative AI—like ChatGPT or image-generating tools—safely and legally. This accessible resource breaks down complex topics such as copyright, data protection, and liability, making it an indispensable companion for professionals and everyday users alike. » More info
⚖️ KI-VO: Navigating the EU AI Act
By Lukas Feiler and Nikolaus Forgó, this 700-page commentary provides a detailed walkthrough of the EU Regulation on Artificial Intelligence. It covers essential topics such as defining AI systems, identifying high-risk applications, and clarifying the obligations of providers, importers, and users, along with practical insights into product regulation and sector-specific exceptions. » More info
✨ Generative AI News ✨
👉The release of Deepseek's R1 model sparked intense discussions in the GenAI Codeforce on January 21st, with the hype intensifying in the following days. This was followed by a brief $600 billion drop in Nvidia’s stock and some concern at OpenAI.
Two key takeaways:
1. The reported $5-6 million training cost for the DeepSeek R1 is misleading. Total development costs are much higher due to multiple runs, and the owning hedge fund controls far more GPUs, valued between $50-100 million.
2. The R1 is open-source, putting pressure on many closed-source models (looking at you, OpenAI).
Despite this, the cost-performance ratio has reached new heights, justifying all the buzz!
👉 OpenAI didn’t wait long to respond, releasing o3-mini, which achieves a new level of performance. While efficiency is left out of the equation, this launch places OpenAI back in the lead. Setting aside vague benchmarks, there’s now a clear side-by-side comparison available here. Additionally, Sam Altman has hinted that OpenAI may reconsider its open-source strategy moving forward.
👉The U.S. has entered the next phase of the AI race against China, announcing a $500 billion joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank, MGX, and Oracle to build AI datacenters on American soil. The project, named Stargate, aims to significantly expand AI infrastructure, though funding concerns have been raised by Elon Musk. The announcement has also sparked outrage in the EU, where AI developers are calling for less regulation and greater support to remain competitive on the global stage.
👉Google’s Veo2 is turning heads. The video generation model we mentioned in our last newsletter is producing videos so realistic, it’s hard to tell they’re AI-generated—unless you pause and closely inspect the text details. One standout example is a stunning Porsche ad created by László Gaál:
🌏 Asia spotlight
DeepSeek Shakes Up the Global AI Landscape. A Reuters investigation detailed how the Hangzhou‑based startup DeepSeek has launched its cost‑efficient DeepSeek‑R1 model—built with a fraction of the resources used by its Western peers—and how its breakthrough is upending expectations worldwide.
Global investors dumped tech stocks as they worried that the emergence of a low-cost Chinese artificial intelligence model would threaten the dominance of AI leaders like Nvidia, evaporating $593 billion of the chipmaker's market value, a record one-day loss for any company on Wall Street.
Alibaba Enters the Fray with a Rival Model. In a strategic counter-move, Alibaba released an AI model that its backers claim outperforms DeepSeek‑V3 across key benchmarks. This move not only intensifies domestic competition but also underscores China’s drive to lead in AI innovation.
Tencent’s Hunyuan3D-2 is a 3D AI model that generates assets and applies detailed textures. It features Hunyuan3D-DiT for creating geometry from reference images and Hunyuan3D-Paint for synthesizing high-resolution textures. Try it out on Hugging Face.
📆 Upcoming Events
Feb 07 aws Digitalisierung | Online Infohour – AI-Adoption & AI-Adoption: Green
Feb 20 64th Deep Learning Meetup: DL for Cognitive Strategies, and Image GenAI
Feb 21 aws Digitalisierung Deep Dive Online Infohour – AI-Adoption & AI-Adoption: Green
Feb 22 Hackathon: Hack for Energy Efficiency – Synthetic Data for Buildings
Feb 24 LINZ! KI AGENTEN Onboarding und Unternehmensintegration
Feb 26 Foundations of LLM Mastery: Fine-tuning on multi GPUs
Feb 27 KI-VIDEO TRAINING UNIT 1 - FRAMES FESTIVAL with a cause
👉 For more information on upcoming events head over to our community calendar.
🧑💻 Featured Jobs
Once a month we feature selected openings from our job board in this section.
Data Scientist (w/m/d) mit Schwerpunkt Computer Vision and Data Scientist (w/m/d) mit Schwerpunkt LLMs & Agentic Workflows at RISC Software GmbH
NLP-engineer at Klartext AI
AI Engineer at FFG - Austrian Research Promotion Agency
Senior AI Developer / Data Scientist at XXXL Digital
Artificial Intelligence Consulting at Axians
👉 Check out more listings at our Job Board