U.S. AI leaders push for slower development, european allies reject the idea

On September 18, 2026, Reuters reported that U.S. AI leaders such as Amodei, Altman, and Musk urged a slower AI development pace due to perceived risks. European firms, however, dismissed the call as self-serving. Mistral, a French startup founded three years ago, claimed the risks were already apparent and that some market players used the situation to push for regulations favoring them. Mistral is viewed as Europe’s best hope to challenge U.S. and Chinese AI dominance. European firms remain reliant on models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft, raising concerns over continued dependence on U.S. technology. Proton’s CEO Raphael Ovadia and Black Forest Labs’ Ben Brooks warned that slowing AI development would hinder innovation. Hugging Face’s Clement Delangue supported acceleration instead. Christian Kressin called Amodei’s proposal regulatory capture. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen emphasized the EU’s regulatory influence on global AI governance. French Finance Minister Roland Lescure admitted the proposal was self-serving, while Germany’s digital affairs ministry argued halting AI development was unrealistic. The German AI Association’s Daniel Abu urged Europe to focus on closing the technological gap rather than debating AI development pace.