Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch is pushing back against Pope Leo XIV’s recent call for AI to be “disarmed,” arguing that Europe can’t afford to fall behind U.S. tech giants in the race for advanced AI. “We’re all for ​peace, but if you look at our rivals and adversaries in the world, they’re using artificial ​intelligence … As long as we have adversaries that are threatening, and they are threatening, we do need to have our own capabilities,” Mensch told reporters when asked about the Pope’s comments on Thursday, Reuters reports. Mensch’s remarks came as Mistral announced it is building a new 10-megawatt data center near Paris and signed new deals with European giants Airbus and BMW. The French AI company is trying to establish itself as Europe’s homegrown alternative to U.S.-based AI rivals like OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and Microsoft.…