Leading US AI companies, including those represented by Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Elon Musk, have proposed slowing down the development of advanced AI systems due to potential risks. However, European officials and industry leaders have expressed significant skepticism toward these suggestions.
Mistral, a French startup founded three years ago, argues that established market players are using safety concerns to consolidate their positions and influence regulations in their favor. Proton COO Raphael Ovann echoed this sentiment, suggesting that US firms aim to maintain global dependency on their services.
German startup Black Forest Labs warned that imposing artificial thresholds could stifle open innovation. Meanwhile, AI professor Christian Kersting described the proposals as regulatory capture, noting that allowing large firms to define danger and select their own inspectors undermines genuine oversight.
European policymakers are also pushing back. French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated that the proposal appears to be a strategy to keep competitors behind. The German Digital Affairs Ministry and the German AI Association emphasize that Europe must focus on closing its technological gap rather than halting development.
Despite the trend, Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue opposes slowing down AI progress, advocating for acceleration instead. He does, however, support the idea of implementing independent evaluators within AI companies to manage safety concerns.
