On 10 and 11 February 2025, France will host global heads of state and government, CEOs, academics, and many more in Paris at the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit. For two days, these AI leaders will discuss five main themes, including:
- Public interest in AI,
- The future of work,
- Innovation and culture,
- Trust in AI, and
- Global AI governance.
What is the Paris AI Action Summit?
This year’s AI Summit will be the third of its kind. The inaugural AI Summit was hosted by the UK
in November 2023 at the historic Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, where Alan Turing and a group of codebreakers cracked the Enigma code during World War II. The second AI Summit was hosted in
Seoul, South Korea, in May 2024.
While the first AI Summit in the UK was borne of the wish to maximise the benefits of AI while minimising the risks attached, a lot has happened over the last two years. New innovations – with China’s DeepSeek being the latest one – have disrupted the market,
and dozens of global elections have since shaken up many countries’ approach to AI.
The AI Action Summit in Paris aims to address the
following questions:
- How can we massively develop artificial intelligence technologies and use cases across all world countries?
- How can we ensure nobody is left behind and preserve our freedoms in the AI revolution?
- How can we ensure that uses of artificial intelligence respect our humanist values and that the technology serves society and the public interest?
Who will be attending the AI Action Summit?
According to the Summit’s website, the event will bring together almost 100 countries and more than a thousand global private sector and civil society representatives, who have been invited on an inclusive basis in recognition of their commitment to actively
contribute to the AI debate.
France’s president Emmanuel Macron will be present as host of the event, and prime minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to France as India is co-chairing the Paris AI Action Summit. Other reported attendees include vice president JD Vance of the US,
and vice premier Ding Xuexiang of China.
Notable chief executives attending include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Elon Musk will reportedly not attend, and the
BBC reports British prime minister Kier Starmer is also not likely to be traveling to Paris.
What to expect from the AI Action Summit?
While the first two summits led through some notable
successes of global collaboration – for example the US and China signing a joint declaration on AI safety – this year’s summit is set to prove more challenging for finding common ground. Tensions are rising between the US and China, not least because of
Trump’s
newly imposed tariff on Chinese goods.
Similarly, China’s release of
DeepSeek has severely disrupted the AI sphere by challenging the supposed US command of AI innovation. In the
BBC, Dame Wendy Hall, professor of computer science at Southampton University, commented: “DeepSeek made everybody realise that China is a force to be reckoned with. We don't have to just go along with what the big companies on the West Coast are saying.
We need global dialogue."
The stakes on leadership in the global AI race are high – with China’s DeepSeek, Trump’s
$500 billion investment in AI infrastructure and
removal of executive orders on addressing AI risk, and Europe’s bid to not fall behind. One of Macron’s officials
describes the AI Action Summit as a ‘wake up call’ for Europe so as not to let the AI revolution pass by.
Considering the global geopolitical landscape and the recent developments in the AI space, France’s AI Action Summit could not come at a more convenient time. It remains to be seen how much collaboration and agreement can be achieved between global leaders.