European tech firms and officials have publicly challenged proposals by some US
AI companies to slow AI development on safety grounds, calling them
self-interested efforts to entrench incumbents and suppress rivals. French AI
firm Mistral and Swiss Proton oppose the proposals; Mistral said "Some leading
firms are using the current situation to consolidate market position and push
for rules that favor themselves and suppress competitors." Proton's COO told a
Paris tech event the proposal "is entirely self-interested; they only want to
preserve market dependence on their services." Black Forest Labs' head of public
policy warned that imposing artificial thresholds between large AI firms and new
entrants would curb frontier innovation.