AI summit in Paris: between the arms race and betting on the future

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Sommet de l'IA – In French, the word AI summit is far more flattering to the listener's ears than the hard-sounding English or German equivalent. Nevertheless, the French summit, which takes place in Paris on Monday and Tuesday, will not avoid tough questions such as the huge amount of energy required and the carbon footprint. Above all, however, the question arises: what role does Europe actually play in the development of artificial intelligence, apart from bringing together top experts from the USA and around the world?

According to the French newspaper Le Monde, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke of a “European wake-up call”. Not only does France want to invest 109 billion euros –, he also announced a European strategy, which is to be presented by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday. Europe has competitive advantages, Macron claims.

Macron's answer to the carbon footprint question is: nuclear power. There is enough of it available in France. Otherwise, AI is like rebuilding Notre Dame: the rest of the world has been shown that it can be done in good time and that procedures can be simplified. The latter in particular is likely to play a key role in the regulation-happy EU.

Does Europe regret its regulation?

“Europe regrets regulation”, says the New York Times in a summary of the first day. According to the report, US AI bosses expressed the view that Europe is a difficult environment in which to do business. Macron seems to agree, calling for Europe to adapt to international realities.

Guests at the AI summit in Paris include the heads of OpenAI (Sam Altman), Google DeepMind (Demis Hassabis) and Anthropic (Dario Amodei). Global politics is prominently represented by US Vice President JD Vance and India's Prime Minister Narenda Modi, among others. This is the third AI Summit to be held in a different country each year, previously in the UK and South Korea.

Focus on opportunities

The third edition in France is taking place amid growing international tensions. The recent furor in the USA over the Chinese generative language model DeepSeek is a good example of how nerves are frayed in the technological arms race. China's success in training an AI model to the same level with significantly less effort is therefore also an issue in Paris. Unlike in the USA, Europeans apparently see this as a glimmer of hope of being able to catch up technically without having to invest the resources that are currently being put into the Stargate project in the USA, for example. According to observers, the risks of AI have been pushed into the background – instead, people prefer to talk about opportunities, for example in medical and climate research.

However, even the meeting of top executives cannot provide answers to two major questions. One is how the new US government under President Donald Trump will position itself with regard to AI. So far, the statements have been contradictory. JD Vance's speech could provide more clarity here, but observers expect that statements made under Trump will not necessarily be reliable.

Is the world prepared for AGI?

The second question concerns general artificial intelligence, or AGI, which can match or even surpass humans. It could lead to significant changes in service industries. AI bosses expect it in five years at the latest. However, observers say that the summit avoids the question of how humanity will adapt to it and what rules and framework conditions it should perhaps establish before then –, preferring to focus on AI in the present.

(mki)