Over the past year, Paris-based Mistral AI has rapidly risen as a homegrown European AI champion, earning the praise of French President Emmanuel Macron. The startup has released six AI language models that can answer questions, produce code, and carry out basic reasoning. It has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and struck a deal with Microsoft, announced in February, to make its models available to the U.S. tech giant’s customers in exchange for access to Microsoft’s computational resources. Mistral’s co-founder and CEO Arthur Mensch has been vocal in debates over the E.U.’s landmark AI law, arguing that rather than regulating general-purpose AI models like Mistral’s, lawmakers should focus on regulating how others use those models. He also opposes limitations on AI developers freely sharing their creations. “I don’t see any risk associated with open sourcing models,” he says. “I only see benefits.”