Europe’s AI firms reject U.S. safety slowdown calls as power play

European AI firms including Mistral have accused U.S. rivals of using safety concerns to entrench market dominance, rejecting Anthropic's call for developers to slow AI advancement as Europe struggles to catch up. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei urged voluntary coordination on safety standards and embedded evaluators, with OpenAI's Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk also warning of risks. European officials called the moves self-serving, citing fears of dependency on U.S. technology. French finance minister Roland Lescure said U.S. firms seek to stay in first place, while German officials argued Europe must close its technological gap. Some European leaders endorsed parts of Amodei's proposal, including independent evaluators.