France's Mistral and other European model makers are opposing proposals to limit the speed of artificial intelligence development, alleging that safety concerns are a strategic tool for incumbents. The companies stated that some firms are using current safety discussions to consolidate their market position and push for regulation designed to favor established players over competitors. This pushback specifically targets a call by Anthropic to pace the frontier of AI capabilities to avoid systemic risks.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently signaled support for an AI slowdown and planned to invite leading laboratories for talks. French Finance Minister Roland Lescure suggested that these calls are a ploy by US labs to remain in first place, urging European nations to accelerate development rather than follow the US lead.