France’s AI summit aims to put EU on the map as ‘leading AI continent’

France’s AI Action Summit, held on 10 and 11 February, aims to present Europe as the “leading AI continent,” according to minutes of the bloc’s telecom attachés seen by Euronews. 

In addition, the event aims to ensure “respect for fundamental values” and build more trust in AI systems. 

The summit — which will bring together heads of state, international organisations, and businesses — follows the UK’s Bletchley Park summit in November 2023 and South Korea’s event in Seoul in May of last year.

The events aim to ensure the AI sector can drive beneficial social, economic and environmental outcomes in the public interest.

The French summit’s three main deliverables are to launch a global platform for AI capacity building, to stimulate information, standards and investment for sustainable AI and to give clarity to all existing global and bilateral initiatives, the minutes show. 

Five working groups — 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) — are led by different countries. 

The European Commission is in the process of getting its AI office up and running after the EU AI Act was agreed last year. The office should become “the centre of AI expertise” across the bloc and play a key role in implementing the rules.

The AI Act — the world’s first set of rules to regulate AI systems according to the risk they pose to society — will be fully applicable by 2027. Still, some of the provisions, including the obligations for general-purpose AI models, will apply as of this August.

The UK’s summit led to a “world-first” agreement on AI to combat the “catastrophic” risks the technology could present.

In Seoul, countries including the EU, UK, US, Japan and Canada agreed to develop more AI safety institutes to align research on machine learning standards and testing.