World leaders and technology executives are gathering in Paris on Monday to discuss how to safely adopt artificial intelligence. This comes amid growing resistance to stringent regulations that businesses argue hinder innovation.
Interest in regulating AI has decreased since previous summits in Britain and South Korea, which highlighted the technology’s risks following the viral launch of ChatGPT in 2022.
As U.S. President Donald Trump dismantles his predecessor’s AI regulations to boost U.S. competitiveness, EU policymakers face pressure to adopt a more flexible approach. This flexibility is seen as necessary to help European firms remain competitive in the tech sector.
Some EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, along with tech companies, are advocating for leniency in the bloc’s new AI Act to support local startups.
“There’s a risk some decide to have no rules and that’s dangerous. But there’s also the opposite risk, if Europe gives itself too many rules,” Macron told regional French newspapers in an interview released on Friday.
“We should not be afraid of innovation,” he added.
Trump’s early actions on AI highlight the diverging regulatory strategies among the United States, China, and the EU.
Last year, European lawmakers approved the AI Act, which is the first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology globally. Tech giants and some member states are pushing for a more lenient enforcement of this act. Meanwhile, Brussels is finalizing an accompanying code of practice.
Trump’s hands-off approach has encouraged cautious regulation among U.S. Big Tech companies, which Europe needs to attract for investment, according to the British think tank Chatham House.
Additionally, China’s DeepSeek recently challenged U.S. and British AI leadership by releasing a human-like reasoning system, intensifying the competition among global rivals.
Chatham House noted, “An unpredictable global scramble to develop AI is underway, as the U.S. turns inward and China boasts new capabilities.”
Trump is not sending representatives from the U.S. AI Safety Institute to Paris, which raises concerns for those advocating for global risk-based AI regulations.
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Key political figures attending the summit include U.S. Vice President JD Vance and China’s Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis are also on the guest list.
Macron plans to meet with Guoqing on Monday and Vance on Tuesday, according to the Elysee. The plenary session is scheduled for February 11.
Top executives, including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, are set to deliver talks. They will also participate in an exclusive dinner with political leaders on Monday.
Google Senior Vice President James Manyika stated at a press reception on Sunday that the opportunities presented by AI are now in “much greater focus.”
Delegations are expected to address the significant energy demands of AI as global temperatures rise. They will also discuss AI applications for developing countries. A non-binding communiqué is currently being drafted.
Macron aims to promote France’s national industry, focusing on sectors where the country has a competitive edge, such as free, open-source systems and clean energy for data centers.
In preparation for the summit, France secured a deal with the United Arab Emirates for a major AI data center, representing investments of up to $50 billion.
The CEO of Nvidia-backed French startup Mistral remarked, “The French and the whole world are realizing that European players count and that they provide cutting-edge technology” while launching a new app featuring generative AI software.
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