Major world political leaders yesterday were meeting for an artificial intelligence (AI) summit in Paris, where challenging diplomatic talks were expected while technology titans fight for dominance in the fast-moving industry.
Heads of state, top government officials, chief executives and scientists from about 100 nations were participating in the two-day international summit.
High-profile attendees included US Vice President J.D. Vance, on his first overseas trip since taking office, and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing (張國清).
Photo: AFP
“We’re living a technology and scientific revolution we’ve rarely seen,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday on national television France 2.
France and Europe must seize the “opportunity” because AI “will enable us to live better, learn better, work better, care better, and it’s up to us to put this artificial intelligence at the service of human beings,” he said.
The summit would give some European leaders a chance to meet Vance for the first time. The 40-year-old vice president was just 18 months into his time as Ohio’s junior senator when US President Donald Trump picked him as his running mate.
Vance today is to have a working lunch with Macron, with discussions on Ukraine and the Middle East on the menu.
Vance, like Trump, has questioned US spending on Ukraine and the approach to isolating Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump promised to end the fighting within six months of taking office.
Vance later this week is to attend the Munich Security Conference, where he might meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The vice president was joined by his wife, Usha, and their three children — Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel — for the trip to Europe.
European leaders have been watching carefully Trump’s statements on threats to impose tariffs on the EU, take control of Greenland and his suggestion that Palestinians clear out Gaza once the fighting in the Israel-Hamas conflict ends — an idea that has been flatly rejected by Arab allies.
The summit, which gathers major players such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, aims at fostering AI advances in sectors such as healthcare, education, environment and culture.
A global public-private partnership named “Current AI” is to be launched to support large-scale initiatives that serve the general interest.
The Paris summit “is the first time we’ll have had such a broad international discussion in one place on the future of AI,” said Linda Griffin, vice president of public policy at Mozilla. “I see it as a norm-setting moment.”
Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group, said that it was an opportunity to shape AI governance in a new direction by “moving away from this concentration of power amongst a handful of private actors and building this public interest AI instead.”
However, it remains unclear if the US would support such initiatives.
French organizers also hope the summit would lead to major investment announcements in Europe.
France is to announce 109 billion euros (US$112 billion) of AI private investments over the coming years, Macron said, presenting it as “the equivalent” of Trump’s Stargate AI data centers project.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is cohosting the summit with Macron, in an effort to involve more global actors in AI development and prevent the sector from becoming a US-China battle.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stressed the need for equitable access to AI to avoid “perpetuating a digital divide that is already existing across the world.”
Macron is tomorrow to travel with Modi to the southern city port of Marseille to inaugurate a new Indian consulate and visit the ITER nuclear research site.
France has become a key defense partner for India, with talks underway on purchasing 26 Rafale fighter jets and three Scorpene submarines.
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