Former French Official Pushes for Looser AI Rules After Joining Startup

In late November, vans circled the streets of Paris and Brussels warning that Europe was on the verge of losing its chance to control artificial intelligence. Earlier that month, French officials had backed out of a deal shaping a major piece of legislation known as the AI Act, because they objected to proposed restrictions on so-called foundation models—the general-purpose artificial intelligence software that enables products such as ChatGPT. One of the vans displayed a digital billboard that read: “EU AI Act Without Foundation Models = Climate Act That Excludes Big Oil.” The other had large photographs of the person the activists behind the campaign considered responsible: Cédric O, a former politician who now works for Europe’s hottest startup, Mistral AI.

As France’s digital affairs minister, O earned a reputation as a reliable critic of US tech and a stalwart proponent of regulation. He was in the government when the AI Act was first introduced in April 2021 but left in 2022. He joined Mistral when it was founded in April 2023, and by this summer he’d become one of the most outspoken critics of the European Union’s plans. His evolving role illustrates the tension between Europe’s desire to lead the way on AI regulation and its anxiety about falling behind in what’s expected to be an epochal shift in the global economy.