A Summit in Paris to put Artificial Intelligence at the service of everyone

Romain Nadal. Ambassador of France in Argentina

Artificial intelligence (AI) is more than an industrial and technological revolution. It has the potential to cause a profound paradigm shift in our societies and in our relationships with knowledge, work, information, culture and even language.

In this sense, AI is not a neutral technologybut a political and citizen issue that requires close international dialogue between world leaders, researchers, companies and civil society.

For this reason, France has accepted the responsibility of taking advantage of the momentum generated by the United Kingdom and South Korea to organize AI Action Summit on February 10-11 2025 in Paris, which will bring together nearly a hundred heads of State and Government and a thousand civil society agents from a hundred countries.

The question that is posed to all of us – to users around the world, to start-ups and large companies, to researchers and decision makers – is, fundamentally, quite simple: How to achieve a successful AI transition? The challenge is greater: allowing AI to fulfill its initial promise of progress and emancipation in a framework of shared trust that allows the risks inherent in the development of technologies to be contained.

With a view to the Summit and beyond, our action focuses primarily on three specific objectives: First, it is essential to guarantee access to AI to the largest possible number of people around the world, so that they can benefit from it and Develop new ideas to reach your full potential.

With the aim of reducing the growing digital divide and curbing excessive concentration of the AI ​​market, we will launch an initiative for large-scale AI of general interest to encourage the development and sharing of computing power, structured data sets, open tools and training for the talents of tomorrow. This project will have the support of public and private agents.

Secondly, we must imperatively reflect together on the two great transitions of our time: the environment and technology. While AI must do everything it can to fight global warming and preserve ecosystems, is currently on an unsustainable trajectory in terms of energy.

The latest forecasts suggest that the AI ​​sector will need ten times more energy in 2026 than in 2023. This perspective is not sustainable. In response, an international, multi-sector coalition for sustainable AI will be launched during the Summit, with the aim of further research into the environmental cost of AI, evaluate models in this light, define new standards and increase investment green at all levels of the value chain

Finally, We must collectively build an effective and inclusive AI governance system that goes beyond issues of ethics and safety. Other issues are paramount. We must debate all these issues, such as the protection of fundamental freedoms and intellectual property, the fight against market concentration and access to data, to name just a few.

We also need to bring everyone to the table to discuss issues such as global AI governance. Only seven countries in the world currently participate in major international AI initiatives, and 119 are completely absent. Likewise, private actors and civil society must also be included to jointly define a common international AI governance architecture. France does not advance alone towards this Summit.

MMore than 700 public and private partners, researchers and NGOs from the five continents have been contributing to its preparation for several months.. No topic will be avoided: from the future of work to frugal AI, from model security to innovation ecosystems, from the necessary linguistic (and therefore cultural) diversity to the protection of personal data.

We count on your support: you are all invited to join us on the path to the AI ​​Action Summit, so that together we can build, within a framework of trust, an AI at the service of all, for a prosperous, more open and more inclusive.