Europe's AI 'champion' sets sights on tech giants in U.S.

Arthur Mensch, tall and lean with a flop of unkempt hair, arrived for a speech last month at a sprawling tech hub in Paris wearing jeans and carrying a bicycle helmet. He had an unassuming look for a person European officials are counting on to help propel the region into a high-stakes match with the United States and China over artificial intelligence. Mensch, 31, is the CEO and a founder of Mistral, considered by many to be one of the most promising challengers to OpenAI and Google. "You have become the poster child for AI in France," Matt Clifford, a British investor, told him onstage. A lot is riding on Mensch, whose company has shot into the spotlight just a year after he founded it in Paris with two college friends.