Qwant and Ecosia launched a joint venture called European Search Perspective (EUSP) that developed an index named Staan. This index aims to serve 50% of searches in France and 33% in Germany by year-end. They are incorporating AI technologies into their platforms, with Ecosia planning to add AI features. EUSP is targeting chatbot integration while promoting Staan as a lower-cost alternative to Google and Bing. The initiative is also motivated by the need for a European tech stack to reduce reliance on U.S. and Chinese technology.
"If you're using ChatGPT or any other AI chatbot, they all do knowledge grounding with web search [...] our index can power deep research and AI summary features. Google and Bing's solutions are also pricey, and our index can offer power search features at a tenth of the cost," Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia, told TechCrunch.
"The timing could not be more urgent. The outcome of the 2024 U.S. election has reminded European policymakers and innovators just how exposed Europe remains when it comes to core digital infrastructure. Much of Europe's search, cloud, and AI layers are built on American Big Tech stacks, putting entire sectors - from journalism to climate tech - at the mercy of political or commercial agendas," the companies said in a statement.
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