AI Action Summit Announced on Open Source, Clean Energy

All eyes are on the French capital next week to see if the Trump administration can find common ground with China and nearly 100 other countries on the safe development of artificial intelligence. Nearly a year after world powers assessed the dangers of artificial intelligence at England’s Bletchley Park, a wide range of countries are gathering in Paris to discuss putting the technology to work, reported by Reuters.

France, keen to boost its domestic industry, is hosting the AI ​​Action Summit with India on February 10 and 11, focusing on areas where Europe’s second-largest economy has strengths. These include freely available or “open source” systems and clean energy to power data centers. Also on the agenda is promoting sovereignty in the global AI market.

US: Consensus with other countries

Top executives from Alphabet, Microsoft and dozens of other companies are planning to attend the summit. Government leaders are expected to have lunch with elected company executives on Monday. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, will speak on Tuesday. It was less clear whether the US would reach a consensus with other countries on AI.

Since taking office on January 20, President Trump has rescinded former President Joe Biden’s 2023 executive order on the technology. He has initiated another withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. Trump has faced calls from Congress to consider new controls on the export of AI chips to counter its rival, China. Vice President J.D. Vance will be with the US delegation.

A non-binding communiqué on principles for governing artificial intelligence, signed by the United States, China and other countries, is under negotiation and would be a major achievement if it is reached, said the summit participants, who spoke on condition of anonymity. They declined to elaborate on the communiqué or clarify whether there are any differences among the potential signatories.

AI benefits in focus

A French presidential official said the summit would give countries around the world a chance to speak, not just the United States and China. Previous global AI summits in Bletchley Park and Seoul have been dominated by security concerns. In Paris, creating new regulations is not on the agenda.

Burdened by bureaucracy and a reputation for risk aversion, Europe, and especially France, are keen to discuss the framework for AI policy, but not rules that could slow down their national leaders, who have lagged behind American companies. Summit participants said countries like France are assessing how to implement the EU’s AI law with maximum flexibility so that it doesn’t stifle innovation.

Instead, the focus is on how to spread the benefits of AI to developing countries, with cheaper models being created by the likes of French startup Mistral and China’s DeepSeek. Last month, the Hangzhou-based company shook up global markets by showing it can compete with American heavyweights while charging much less.