Large-scale language models are a key AI technology. They can recognize, produce, translate and process speech at a level hardly distinguishable from that of a human being.

The economic potential of large AI language models is enormous. As yet, the most successful AI language models come from the USA and China. These are often not fully available to the free market and applicable to the English and Chinese languages only. The rapidly growing importance of large-scale AI language models calls for the urgent need to ensure technology and data independence as well as innovation and competitiveness for Europe.

OpenGPT-X builds and trains large-scale AI language models to drive innovative language application services for the European economy. Through the open Gaia-X infrastructure, businesses will be able to use and share data and services free of charge, in multiple languages and according to the highest European data protection standards to develop products and processes with a wide variety of language features (e.g. chatbots, digital assistants and personalised media reports). The collaborative project between science, business and technology is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) from January 2022 to December 2024 as part of the funding program Innovative and Practical Applications and Data Spaces in the Gaia-X Digital Ecosystem.