Two of Europe's most expensive startups - France's Mistral AI and Germany's Helsing - have announced a strategic partnership to jointly develop artificial intelligence to strengthen Europe's defense capabilities.
The partnership will combine Mistral's AI models with Helsing's experience in military AI technologies. Last December, the Munich-based startup, which develops artificial intelligence for drones and fighter jets, began producing its own weapons. Helsing developed the HX-2 attack drone used in Ukraine.
"The joint development work will focus on Vision-Language-Action models, enabling defence platforms to understand their environment, communicate naturally with operators, and allow for faster, more reliable decisions in complex scenarios," the announcement states.
The tense geopolitical situation in the world is forcing tech startups that have not previously worked in defense tech to pay attention to the industry. OpenAI, for example, previously banned the use of its technology for military purposes, but in January 2024 it changed its policy to allow some cooperation with the military. At the end of the year, the company signed its first deal with a weapons manufacturer, marking the deepest interaction between the company and the Pentagon.
Another American startup, Anthropic, announced a partnership with Palantir Technologies to provide US intelligence and defense agencies with access to its artificial intelligence.
The big players are also changing their rules. Google recently rescinded its pledge not to use artificial intelligence for potentially harmful applications such as weapons and surveillance.
