France and India Co-Host AI Action Summit in Paris

The Artificial Intelligence Action Summit met in Paris on February 10 and 11, 2025.

The Artificial Intelligence Action Summit brought world leaders, scholars, CEOs, artists, and citizens together to discuss how to harness the power of AI for the greater good on February 10 and 11, 2025. This is the third international summit on AI following the UK and South Korea summits on AI safety in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Hosted in Paris, France, this two-day conference showcased the world’s willingness to take more action to advance AI with global cooperation and transparency. 

Various guest speakers came from all over the world, including U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, President of the European Union Ursula von der Leyen, singer Pharrel Williams, Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. 

The conference focused on 5 central themes: public interest in AI, future of work, innovation and culture, trust and AI, and global AI governance. Central ideas spoken during the summit were the need for fewer regulations for more innovation, how AI will not take jobs but create them, and the overall good that AI can do for humanity. Many speakers emphasized how AI would not take over humanity because humans control their own destiny and can steer it towards good with AI.  Rarely did people mention the bad effects of AI or what regulations should be put in place without being somewhat vague, which reflects in the commitment statement of the summit, which is similarly vague but was signed by over 60 countries, not including the U.K. and the United States.  

The United States

During his speech, Vice President Vance highlighted four main points: the United States will be the gold standard for AI, there should be little regulation on AI for growth, the United States will ensure AI is not tainted by ideology such as authoritarianism, and the United States will take a pro-American worker approach to AI so it does not affect jobs. He stated that while all the most powerful AI systems will be built in the United States with its domestic resources, the United States welcomes cooperation with all. However, he also rebuked other countries for “tightening the screws” on U.S. businesses and claimed that they should not be cooperating with authoritarian regimes who will just be their authoritarian masters, a comment that was seen as an attack against China. 

India 

Prime Minister Modi, who co-hosted the AI summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, stated that AI is being produced and deployed at an unprecedented rate. He believes that it makes the world more interdependent, which calls for shared standards and values to build trust. Throughout his speech, Prime Minister Modi emphasized the need to democratize AI and that it should be rooted in local ecosystems for it to work effectively. He called upon nations to pull together resources and talent, and to create datasets “free from biases” in order for AI to do the most good for everyone. He also mentioned Indian achievements in the field of AI, such as making digital commerce more democratic, having one of the world’s largest AI talent pools, and building its own AI language. 

EU 

President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, spoke about how the EU will lead the AI race by embracing AI everywhere while also ensuring some regulations for safety. She stated that the EU will invest in what it does best and work in niche areas such as adapting AI to specific industries for productivity. She emphasized that EU AI is cooperative and will bring talent from all over the world to spur innovation, similar to the EU’s approach toward science. President von der Leyen also unveiled a huge public investment by the EU towards AI at the summit.

President Macron shared these same sentiments in his speech but also underscored the role that France can play in AI because of its energy-producing capabilities. He stated that the EU will develop AI at a fast rate so that they can compete with the United States and China. 

China 

Vice Premier Zhang, who attended the summit on behalf of President Xi Jingping, talked about AI as a driving force in the new technological revolution and industrial transformation. He stated that China has always had a “highly responsible attitude” when participating in global cooperation and AI governance and that China was willing to work with other countries to promote development, safeguard security, share achievements, and build a joint community for mankind. Vice Premier Zhang especially stressed this last point because he emphasized that when facing the opportunities and challenges of AI, the world needed to come together to advocate for the principle of developing AI for good, deepen innovative cooperation, strengthen inclusiveness and benefits, and improve global governance. In his speech, Vice Premier Zhang also invited developing countries to come to the Global Developing Conference hosted in China on February 21 to 23. 

Takeaways

Overall, the AI summit showcased a shift from widespread pessimism about AI to grand optimism about its capabilities for humanity. Each country that spoke at the conference believed itself to be a leader in AI and laid out different approaches to keeping that status.

The big achievement that came out of the summit was the signing of the statement “Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet” by 50 countries, which advocated for inclusive, international dialogue on AI while keeping in mind the risks and importance of transparency. It must be noted that this statement is non-binding. Looking ahead, India stated that it will host the next AI summit, which will once again focus on action that the international community can take on AI.