France’s AI Action Summit, scheduled for February 10-11, 2025, is set to position Europe as the “leading AI continent.” The event follows similar summits held in the UK and South Korea, where global leaders, international organizations, and businesses gathered to discuss the future of artificial intelligence (AI).
The summit’s primary objectives include fostering respect for fundamental values in AI development and increasing trust in AI systems. It will bring together heads of state, business leaders, and international organizations with a shared goal of ensuring AI’s positive impact on society, economy, and the environment, reports EuroNews.
According to internal documents from the EU’s telecom attachés, the French summit will focus on three main goals:
- Launching a global platform for AI capacity building.
- Stimulating information exchange, standard-setting, and investment for sustainable AI.
- Providing clarity on existing global and bilateral AI initiatives.
Five working groups will address various topics: Public Interest AI (Brazil and Morocco), Future of Work (Italy), Innovation and Culture (European Commission), Trust in AI (South Korea and UK), and Global Governance of AI (India and Canada).
In parallel, the European Commission is moving forward with the establishment of its AI office, which will play a central role in implementing the EU AI Act. The AI Act, the first set of global regulations for AI systems, is set to be fully enforced by 2027, although some provisions, such as those for general-purpose AI models, will take effect as early as August 2025.
Previous AI summits, including the UK’s Bletchley Park summit in November 2023 and South Korea’s event in Seoul in May 2024, set the stage for global agreements on AI safety and standards. The UK summit led to a “world-first” agreement on AI to combat the risks associated with the technology, while the Seoul summit saw nations like the EU, UK, US, Japan, and Canada commit to developing AI safety institutes and aligning machine learning research standards.
As Europe gears up for its AI leadership role, France’s summit will be a key moment for shaping the future of AI on the global stage.
