European figures question US companies' proposal to slow AI R&D as being "for self-interest"

TechFlow reports that on September 19, European tech companies and government officials have recently voiced concerns that some US artificial intelligence (AI) companies' proposal to slow down AI research and development under the guise of safety is "driven by self-interest," arguing that the true aim is to consolidate their own advantages and suppress competitors. European AI companies such as France's Mistral AI have expressed opposition to the US firms' proposal.

In a statement, Mistral said, "Some leading industry players are leveraging the current situation to consolidate their market position and push for regulatory rules that favor themselves while stifling competition." Raphael Ouaf, chief operating officer of Swiss quantum computing firm Quantinuum, commenting on the US proposal at a technology event in Paris, said, "This is purely out of self-interest; they simply want to maintain market dependence on their services." Ben Brooks, head of public policy at German AI startup Black Forest Labs, stated that artificially imposing thresholds to force a divide between large AI companies and new entrants will stifle innovation momentum in frontier technologies. (Jin10)