Tech Giants and World Leaders Gather in Paris for Third AI Summit Worth €13 Million: ‘Europe's way’ and DeepSeek Under Discussion

Today, Monday, 10 February, nearly 1,500 participants, including political leaders from around the world, are gathering in the French capital for the third International Artificial Intelligence Summit.  

The summit will be a global stage for France to demonstrate its ambitions for artificial intelligence. President Emmanuel Macron said last year that he wants the City of Light to become an AI city. The summit is co-chaired by India, represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

France aims to eclipse the previous British AI summit held in London in at least one way - it will be much cheaper. According to a preparatory document for the 2025 budget analysed by POLITICO, the event will cost €13 million. This is a little more than a third of what the previous summit in the UK cost.

Among the attendees will be Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI and creator of ChatGPT, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, and Dario Amodei, boss of the American startup Anthropic. 

Participants will discuss the opportunities and dangers of this technology during the roundtables Cyberattacks and Information Integrity, AI and Science, and The Future of Work. 

The major players in the sector will also address the issue of global AI governance aimed at regulating its potential excesses, following its introduction to the general public two years ago with ChatGPT. Without hindering its development.

Several topics have been identified for the summit. One of the main topics of discussion will be the Chinese company DeepSeek, which recently created open-source artificial intelligence. This has burst the artificial intelligence bubble. According to the developers, the basic model is cheaper and more energy efficient than all previous ones. 

The day before, on Sunday, 9 countries, including France, associations, and companies announced the launch of an initiative called ‘Current Artificial Intelligence’ for ‘artificial intelligence of general interest’ with an initial investment of $400 million and sponsored by 11 technology leaders.

The project aims to develop access to private and public databases in areas such as healthcare and education, promote more transparent and secure artificial intelligence, and develop systems to assess the social and environmental impact of this technology.

The summit also aims to show that ‘France and Europe are trustworthy,’ French President Emmanuel Macron insisted on Sunday.

‘We want to work much faster and stronger,’ he insisted, announcing that private companies will invest €109 billion in AI in France in the coming years.

Other expected events include the announcement of the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who will unveil about ten large supercomputers dedicated to public research or open to European startups. These super-powerful computers are crucial for training and running AI models.