Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited San Francisco on Monday evening with a dual purpose: to showcase Greece and to engage in something unusual for a head of state on a trade mission. Speaking before an audience of approximately 250 founders, investors, and operators, he openly acknowledged that he lacks answers to many AI-related questions that world leaders typically debate behind closed doors. In conversation with this editor at an event along San Francisco's Financial District waterfront, the prime minister characterized his Bay Area visit as partly exploratory. His morning had included tours of Tesla and Sequoia Capital, with plans to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York later that week. The trip also aimed to forge connections—he was actively recruiting tech companies to consider establishing operations in Greece, which is poised to regain developed market status from MSCI, the influential index provider, next year.

"I think it's another indication that the economy is doing well and that Greece is no longer treated as a special case," Mitsotakis remarked. A Stanford master's degree holder who described the visit as "a homecoming," Mitsotakis prioritized economic arguments during our discussion. Greece is reducing its debt at an unprecedented rate and, he noted, borrows at lower costs than the United States. "I don't know if I should say this," he told the audience with a smile.

The comparison isn't perfectly equivalent. Interest rates are generally lower throughout the eurozone, which explains part of the difference. Nevertheless, it serves as an accessible talking point. At the time of writing, Greece's 10-year bond yield stands at approximately 4.3%, compared to roughly 5% for U.S. Treasuries. Such figures would have been utterly inconceivable during the debt crisis, when Greek yields exceeded 40% in 2012. Mitsotakis was equally enthusiastic about discussing how Greece has allocated its funds. For instance, he explained that a substantial portion of the approximately €36 billion Greece received from the EU's post-COVID recovery fund was directed toward digital infrastructure, including an online portal enabling Greeks to complete government paperwork without queuing, and a new supercomputer assembled with assistance from Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the port town of Lavrio that he said will become operational within months to support AI and scientific research in Greece. Predictably, he also highlighted policy changes that matter significantly to tech companies. Greece has reformed stock option taxation, he said, relaxed labor regulations, and provides returning Greeks with substantially reduced taxes for up to seven years. We also discussed the country's expanding visa programs, though when questioned about how he evaluates their success, Mitsotakis acknowledged the government "still [has] work to do" regarding processing speed. He also volunteered that Greece's public universities have undergone a dramatic transformation, having long embraced a "radical leftist approach" and now generating startups.

Mitsotakis's broader objective is to attract back the talent Greece lost during its debt crisis, when many younger citizens departed because they lacked alternatives. He also perceives an opportunity: as American work visas become increasingly difficult to secure, he suggested, more founders should consider hiring in Greece. However, the conversation shifted tone when the subject turned to AI's societal impacts. Mitsotakis was remarkably forthright about lacking a comprehensive plan. Greece, for example, is implementing a ban on social media for children under 15 starting in January, a measure many countries are similarly considering or enacting. But he suggested the ban may already be outdated, given the seemingly addictive nature of AI chatbots as well. "Sometimes I feel that we're already fighting yesterday's battle," he said. "What does it mean for our kids to grow up with digital companions or boyfriends or girlfriends."

He expressed similar caution regarding AI in classrooms. Greece has conducted an education pilot with OpenAI aimed at reducing teachers' administrative burdens, and he sees potential in personalized AI tutors. But he emphasized that the benefits depend on AI not replacing "the hard work of learning the basic skills." He warned that students are already using chatbots to complete their homework, adding: "complacency is a human trait."

When I inquired about AI infrastructure—Greece has been actively courting data center investment—he described the country as an exception. Despite increasing opposition to data centers globally due to the electricity and water required to operate them, Mitsotakis said that "we have not had any significant reaction" in Greece. He noted that Microsoft is constructing a cluster of data centers near Athens and that AWS recently announced an agreement with Greece's largest utility to build the country's biggest data center in a former coal region. There, he said, the projects are embraced. Unlike many politicians, he didn't pretend to have solutions for what lies ahead, either. Job displacement "is something which is going to happen," he said, "and no government and no society is prepared for the speed with which it will happen."

Regarding the debate over whether AI development should be slowed, he aligned with the leaders of frontier labs who have been advocating for such measures. "If the people who are building the models are telling us, 'We're not really sure exactly what's happening with these models,'" particularly regarding how they improve themselves, he said, "we need to listen to them."

Some form of "smart regulation" is unavoidable, he observed, and the U.S. will largely determine its shape. Still, he added, Greece would gladly host the conversation. Humanity has created "a form of intelligence that is very quickly exceeding the capacity of the most advanced organ that evolution has ever created," said Mitsotakis, raising the question of what it means to be human. Bringing together technologists with "the social scientists, the philosophers, the historians," he said, "I cannot think of a better place to really have these discussions."

He has a point. Athens is where Socrates challenged his fellow citizens in the agora, the city's ancient public square, about what constitutes a good life and a just society. Perhaps the questions Silicon Valley is still debating will ultimately be resolved there as well.