Europe needs to control AI for defense, top industry exec says – POLITICO

BRUSSELS — Europe needs to develop its own artificial intelligence capabilities to ensure its militaries can’t be “turned off” by foreign adversaries, the CEO of Europe’s leading AI company warned Tuesday.

“We need European AI, if only for defense,” Arthur Mensch, the CEO of French AI darling Mistral, valued at over €11 billion, told an audience of policymakers in Brussels. Artificial intelligence has become as important as nuclear weapons and deterrence, he argued: “If you don’t have artificial intelligence in your systems, you actually don’t have an army.”

Amid increasing recognition of America’s dominance in digital technologies, Mensch warned that Europe’s reliance on foreign technology cannot creep into the defense and military space. He framed the need for Europe to become competitive in the global AI race against an increasingly bleak geopolitical landscape and live wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.