Mistral CEO says U.S. AI safety debate masks competitors' negligence

Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch said debate in the U.S. over AI safety is being used by some competitors to hide what he called negligence. He argued that AI systems need better controls to keep AI agents from acting unpredictably. Mensch made the comments in an interview with CNBC, as concerns about AI safety have intensified after incidents involving autonomous systems and a series of public warnings from industry leaders. He said companies need monitoring tools to manage agent behavior, especially when those systems are given access to external tools. The remarks come as OpenAI and Anthropic have both faced scrutiny over model safety and release decisions. Mistral, which sells custom AI tools to businesses, said it plans to continue developing advanced models and expects its next generation system to narrow the gap with major U.S. AI labs.