Can Europe Win the AI Race Using Technology It Doesn’t Control?
Speed vs. Sovereignty: Europe’s AI Startup Dilemma
Debate Club and The Agora are hosting an intimate debate night in Berlin for people interested in AI, startups, technology, public speaking, and sharp conversation.
For our first event, we wanted to create something different from a typical panel. Something more alive. A room where people can think out loud, challenge each other, laugh a little, and leave with a sharper view than they came in with.
So we’re starting with a question that feels very real for anyone building, working, or thinking around AI right now:
Should European startups use the best AI tools available, even if that means depending on US and Chinese technology?
On one side, the answer feels obvious. Startups need speed. The best AI tools help teams build faster, automate more, and compete globally. If a tool gives you an advantage, why wouldn’t you use it?
But there is another side. Many of the tools European companies rely on are built, owned, hosted, or controlled outside Europe. That raises harder questions about data, infrastructure, dependency, security, and whether Europe can shape its own technological future.
So what matters more?
Speed, because founders need to survive and compete now?
Or sovereignty, because long-term dependence comes with a cost?
This is not a lecture.
This is not a traditional panel.
It is a live, moderated debate night where the audience is part of the room, not just watching from the side.
We’ll start with short opening arguments from invited speakers. Then we’ll open the floor into an interactive debate circle, with space for questions, challenges, arguments, responses, and people changing their minds.
You can come to speak, listen, argue, laugh, vote, or just meet people thinking about the same things.
No expert status required. Curiosity is enough. An opinion helps.
Expect strong arguments, humour, disagreement, and a relaxed room of people from Berlin