Trump And DeepSek Become The Spotlight At Paris AI Summit

United States President Donald Trump will be of concern in Paris AI Summit (photo: x @MichaelCozzi9)

JAKARTA - All eyes are on Paris next week to see if United States President Donald Trump's administration can reach an agreement with China and nearly 100 other countries on the development of safe artificial intelligence (AI).

About a year after world powers discussed the dangers of AI at Bletchley Park, England, more countries are now gathering in Paris to discuss how this technology can be better utilized. France, which wants to promote its national AI industry, hosted India's AI Action Summit on February 10 and 11. The main focus of this meeting is open-source AI systems and clean energy to support data centers, two areas where Europe's second-largest economy has an advantage.

In addition, this meeting will also discuss how to mitigate the impact of AI on labor and promote sovereignty in the global AI market. A number of CEOs of well-known technology companies, including Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, and many others, are confirmed to attend. Government leaders are also scheduled to attend a dinner on Monday 10 February with the elected CEOs. On Tuesday, February 11, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is scheduled to give a speech in a discussion session.

However, it remains unclear whether the US will reach an agreement with other AI countries. Since taking office on January 20, President Trump has revoked executive orders regarding AI issued by his predecessor, Joe Biden, in 2023.

Trump also withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and faced pressure from Congress to impose restrictions on AI chip exports to deal with competition with China. The US delegation at this meeting will be chaired by US Vice President, JD Vance.

One of the main agendas in AI Action Summit is the formulation of communication with non-binding principles for AI management to be signed by the US, China, and other countries. If reached, this agreement will be a major achievement in efforts to manage AI technology at the global level.

However, until now, there have been no details regarding the content of the communique or the potential for dissent among participating countries. The White House has not yet responded to a request for comment regarding this meeting.

A French presidential official said that the main goal of AI Action Summit is to vote for countries around the world, not just for the US and China. "We want to show that AI is here, that companies should adopt it, and that AI is a competitive power vector for France and Europe," the official said.

No New Regulations For AI

In a previous global meeting at Bletchley Park and Seoul, the main focus was commitment to AI safety. However, in Paris, there are no plans to discuss new regulations. France and Europe as a whole want to develop an AI policy framework without having to impose rules that could slow innovation in their tech industry.

Several European countries, including France, are evaluating how to implement the European Union AI Law in a flexible way so as not to hinder the growth of their national AI industry which is still lagging behind US companies.

One of the main topics of this meeting was the distribution of AI benefits to developing countries through a lower-cost AI model developed by startups such as Mistral from France and DeepSek from China.

Hangzhou-based DeepSek companies rocked the global market last month by showing that they can compete with US tech giants in AI development with human-like reasoning capabilities, but at lower costs.

France sees this development as proof that the global AI race is still wide open and not only dominated by a handful of countries.

One of the results likely to be announced at this meeting is a commitment from philanthropy and business to provide an initial USD 500 million, which could increase to USD 2.5 billion in five years, to fund an AI project aimed at the public interest worldwide.

In addition, another issue that will be discussed is the impact of energy from the power-hungry AI model. As the main producer of clean energy through nuclear power, France wants to connect global AI ambitions with commitments to environmental sustainability.

"The energy of decarbonization of France and our nuclear fleet, in the context of installing data centers, is a huge asset," said officials ERADICATION. "There will most likely be announcements regarding this at the meeting later."

With so many important agendas to be discussed, AI Action Summit in Paris has the potential to be one of the most influential meetings in shaping AI's future at the global level.