On February 10 and 11, a major gathering brought together in Paris more than 1,000 representatives of governments from five continents, international organisations, business circles, artists, academics and researchers and NGOs to discuss a major topic and challenge for our time: how will we - individuals, governments, international organisations, businesses, civil societies - face the extraordinary opportunities and changes that AI offers us, today and in the future.
The need for this Summit convened by President Emmanuel Macron stems from an observation: we are facing a fundamental, intellectual, industrial and technological revolution that carries the potential for a profound paradigm shift in our societies, in our relationships with knowledge, work, information, culture and language. Concretely, some 300 million jobs could be affected in the years to come by the development of AI. As President Macron stated: AI is "a tremendous technological and scientific revolution for progress and in the service of progress. So, it is first of all, obviously, technology, science, the improvement of lots of research, transformation of many sectors, but our conviction is that it must be done in the service of humanity, and therefore to live better".
AI is not a neutral technology. It can offer the best and also generate risks and raise legitimate concerns, such as the reliability of information, the protection of individual rights, the very concept of human creativity, among other questions, many of which are not precisely known yet. AI is therefore a political and civic issue that requires close international dialogue between world's governments, researchers, legal experts, intellectuals, businesses and civil society.
France wished to gather all these actors to reflect on these essential questions in order to pursue the momentum initiated by previous summits in the UK and the Republic of Korea. With more than 750 start-ups in the AI sector - the largest number in Europe - and more than 36,000 people employed in this sector, France was all the more destined to host this Summit. France also has 9 AI clusters based in different cities and the largest number of AI laboratories in Europe. In 2024, 3.3 billion euros were dedicated to AI in all sectors combined, which represented 700 projects. Moreover, 360 million euros were dedicated to training and research. As a result, France has 40,000 talented data scientists specialising in AI and this number is expected to increase to 100,000 trained per year.
Beyond its tech ecosystem, France was keen to highlight one priority: think together about how the world will succeed in the AI shift and enable AI to fulfil its initial promise of progress and emancipation within a framework of common trust. In this regard, the Paris Summit aimed at creating a common dynamic for reflection and action over the long term, around three main objectives and principles:
1) Allow equal AI access to as many people as possible so that everyone benefits from it and develops new ideas to realise its full potential.
2) Jointly and imperatively lead the two major transitions of our time: the environment and technology. While AI must play its full part in combating global warming and preserving ecosystems, it is currently on an unsustainable trajectory in terms of energy. The latest forecasts suggest that as early as 2026, energy needs for the AI sector will be ten times higher than in 2023. In order to cope with this environmental challenge, the French government has launched a coalition bringing together around 30 companies with the aim of promote a more resource-efficient framework.
3) Collectively build an effective and inclusive AI governance system not limited to questions of ethics and security. We certainly need to discuss issues such as the protection of fundamental freedoms, intellectual property or access to data. But we also need to bring everyone around the table to discuss topics such as global AI governance or the fight against market concentration. In addition to state actors, private actors and civil society must be included in order to define a common architecture for international AI governance.
In line with these challenges, President Macron has announced 109 billion euros of investments in AI in the coming years, in France essentially, to which both French and foreign investors, public and private, will contribute. Priority will be given to the construction of data centres. As many as 35 sites throughout France are ready to host data centres.
In this regard, several announcements have been made:
= As part of a joint Framework Agreement between France and the UAE, investments of up to 50 billion euros are planned, supported by the MGX fund, with the aim of creating a 1 GW campus dedicated to AI.
= Canadian fund Brookfield is planning an investment of 20 billion euros by 2030, including 15 billion euros for the construction of new data centres.
= American company Digital Reality announced an investment of more than 5 billion euros to finance data centres in the Paris region and the city of Marseille.
= British company Fluidstack has entered into a partnership with the French government to deploy the world's largest supercomputer for AI with an initial investment of 10 billion euros.
French companies are fully part of this revolution; the leading Mistral AI start-up company will deploy its first data centre in the Paris region.
Many other commitments were made during the Paris AI Summit by French (Eclairion, Iliad, Sesterce), American (Amazon, Apollo, Equinix, Prologis), Swedish (Evroc) and Japanese (Telehouse) groups.
At the institutional level, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reaffirmed the EU's ambitions in developing AI, stating the EU's aims to mobilise 200 billion euros as part of the "EU AI Champions Initiative". Around 60 major industrial groups have announced their involvement in this initiative, including Airbus, L'Oréal and Mercedes. Tech groups such as Mistral AI and Spotify will also be involved. As President Macron said this Summit exemplifies the reawakening of the AI European strategy.
In France, the public investment bank BpiFrance announced a contribution of 10 billion euros over 4 years for the development of AI.
France is proud and happy to have contributed to this objective which was concluded by the signing of a declaration for an "open", "inclusive" and "ethical" AI by some 60 countries as well as by the EU and the African Union Commission.
With its technology and its talented researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs and representatives of civil society, Pakistan has a major role to play in this collective work. I am pleased to know that representatives of Pakistani civil society - such as Nighat Dad, President of the Digital Rights Foundation - participated in the Paris Summit.
Following on from the Summit, the French Embassy in Pakistan wishes to engage with Pakistani partners to contribute to the achievement of the great ambitions displayed by the hundreds of participants gathered in Paris who shared very rich and substantial discussions, with one essential priority: ensuring that the extraordinary revolution benefits every human being, their progress, their individual creativity and freedom.
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