Leading world political leaders met yesterday at the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit in Paris, where challenging diplomatic talks and a battle among tech giants for dominance in the rapidly advancing technology industry are expected.
Heads of state, senior government officials, company CEOs, and scientists from around 100 countries are participating in this two-day international gathering.
Among the participants are the United States (U.S.) Vice President JD Vance, on his first foreign trip since taking office, and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.
“We are experiencing a rarely seen technological and scientific revolution,” said French President Emmanuel Macron two days ago.
France and Europe must seize the “opportunity” because AI will enable them to live, learn, work, and heal better, and it is up to them to put that AI in the service of people, Macron said.
The summit will be an opportunity for some European leaders to meet U.S. Vice President Vance for the first time. The 40-year-old vice president had spent just 18 months as a junior senator from the state of Ohio when Donald Trump selected him as his running mate in his presidential race.
Vance will have a working lunch with Macron today, with discussions on Ukraine and the Middle East on the agenda.
Like U.S. President Donald Trump, Vance has questioned U.S. expenditures on Ukraine and the approach of isolating Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has promised to end the fighting within six months of taking office.
Later this week, Vance will attend the Munich Security Conference, where he may meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The U.S. vice president is accompanied on his trip to Europe by his wife and their three children. The summit, which also gathers companies such as Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, is expected to promote the advancement of AI in sectors such as healthcare, education, the environment, and culture.
A global public-private partnership called “Present AI” is expected to be launched to support major initiatives serving the general interest.
The Paris summit is “the first time we will have such a broad international discussion in one place about the future of AI,” said Linda Griffin, Vice President for Public Policy at Mozilla, adding that she sees it as a moment when norms are being set.
Senior geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group Nick Reiners said that this summit is an opportunity to shape AI governance in a new direction, moving away from a concentration of power in the hands of a handful of private actors and instead building AI for the public interest.
However, it remains unclear whether the U.S. will support such initiatives.
French organizers hope the summit will lead to announcements of greater investments in Europe.
France will announce private investments in the AI sector worth a total of 109 billion euros over the coming years, Macron said, presenting it as “equivalent” to Trump’s strategic AI data center project.
Co-hosting the summit with Macron is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an effort to include global actors in AI development and prevent the sector from becoming a battleground between the U.S. and China.
Indian Foreign Minister Vikram Misri emphasized the need for equal access to AI to prevent the digital divide that already exists worldwide.
