By AFP - Agence France Presse
World and tech leaders face the challenges of AI at the Paris summit
Tom BARFIELD and Daxia ROJAS
Political and tech industry leaders arrived in Paris on Monday for a two-day summit on artificial intelligence, hoping to find common ground on the revolutionary technology that is set to transform business and society around the world.
Co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the summit aims to lay the foundations for governing the nascent sector as global powers race to play leading roles in the fast-developing technology.
Monday's meeting, attended by around 1,500 guests at the opulent Grand Palais in the French capital, will feature keynote speeches and panel discussions outlining the promises and challenges presented by AI.
Political leaders, including the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, and the Chinese Vice Premier, Zhang Guoqing, are expected to meet with Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, and Sundar Pichai, head of Google.
A crowd of men and women speaking languages from all over the world, mostly in suits, gathered under the glass and steel dome of the great hall, built for the Universal Exposition of 1900.
Selected companies, academics, and non-profit groups exhibited their work with AI on stands scattered around the cavernous space, decorated with screens and geodesic domes.
Two years after the emergence of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot, capable of responding to all kinds of requests in natural language, “artificial intelligence nurtures immense hopes and sometimes exaggerated fear,” Anne Bouverot, Macron's envoy for AI, told guests at the opening of the summit.
She promised a “turning point” that would bring more countries into the development of AI, which until now has been restricted to a few advanced economies.
Also on the agenda is the “sustainable development” of resource- and energy-intensive technology.
“We know that AI can help mitigate climate change, but we also know that its current trajectory is unsustainable,” said Bouverot.
- 'Stargate' sets the pace
On Sunday, Macron trumpeted the benefits of artificial intelligence and French efforts in the field.
In a TV interview, he announced “109 billion euros ($113 billion) of investment in artificial intelligence over the next few years” in France.
This was “the equivalent for France of what the US announced with ‘Stargate’”, the $500 billion US program led by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, he added.
The technical challenges and price of entry for nations hoping to stay ahead in the AI race have become clearer in recent weeks.
Chinese startup DeepSeek has surprised Silicon Valley heavyweights with its low-cost, high-performance AI models.
In the United States, President Donald Trump has lent the aura of his cabinet to the “Stargate” project to build computing infrastructure such as data centers.
These vast buildings concentrate in one place the data storage and processing power needed to develop and run the most advanced AI models.
“Europe needs to find a way to take a stand, take some initiative, and take back control,” said Sylvain Duranton of the Boston Consulting Group.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to announce around 10 public supercomputers designed for use by researchers and startups during her participation in the summit.
- Global governance puzzle
Away from investments, a group of countries, companies, and philanthropic organizations said on Sunday that they would inject 400 million dollars into a partnership called “Current AI”, which would promote “public interest” approaches to technology.
Current AI aims to raise to $2.5 billion for its mission to give AI developers access to more data, offer open source tools and infrastructure for programmers to develop and “develop systems to measure the social and environmental impact of AI”.
“We have seen the damage of unchecked technological development and the transformative potential it holds when aligned with the public interest,” said Current AI founder Martin Tisne.
On Tuesday, political leaders from around 100 countries will hold a plenary session, with notable participants including Modi, Vance, Zhang, and Von der Leyen.
France hopes that governments will agree on voluntary commitments to make AI sustainable and environmentally friendly.
However, any agreement may be difficult to reach between blocs as diverse as the European Union, the United States, China and India, each with different priorities in terms of technological development and regulation.
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