World leaders are not worried that artificial intelligence will lead to the extinction of humanity or that it will be misused by terrorists. At a recent summit on possible AI activities in Paris, they seemed much more concerned about not losing the global race to develop artificial intelligence.
Security concerns, which dominated the two previous AI summits in the United Kingdom and South Korea, were barely mentioned. In the final declaration at the end of the summit, security was mentioned only three times. The United States and Britain did not even sign the final declaration. Instead, politicians promoted huge investments and promised light regulation.
"I'm not here to talk about the safety of artificial intelligence, but about the opportunities it offers," said US Vice President JD Vance. "This summit is about action, and that's what we need right now," added European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, before announcing a multi-billion euro investment plan.
Change direction
The shift from AI security and governance to making deals and enabling AI companies to thrive has been long in the making. France deliberately branded the Paris event as an “action” summit, a stark contrast to the AI Security Summit to be held in November 2023 at Bletchley Park in the UK, where major tech companies committed to establishing a framework for security.
"We have kept references to the Bletchley summit to a minimum," admitted a French official. This came at a cost, however, as Britain decided not to sign the Paris Declaration.
Timing also played a key role, as a series of AI upheavals in the weeks leading up to the summit highlighted the global race between the US, China and the European Union.
US President Donald Trump's $500 billion plan for AI hardware, along with the rollback of AI safety rules introduced by his predecessor, clearly demonstrated America's determination to win the race for AI dominance. Just days later, billions of dollars in AI companies' stock was wiped off the markets when a Chinese competitor showed it could develop AI models cheaply.
Vance called on European countries, which are global leaders in regulating artificial intelligence, to embrace "the new frontier of AI with optimism, not fear."
The political reality in Brussels has also changed.
Von der Leyen is now focusing on boosting growth in Europe's sluggish economy, and the application of artificial intelligence is one of the top priorities for achieving that goal.
"The position of global AI leader remains open," von der Leyen said during a speech at the summit's closing ceremony. "Europe is open for AI and for business," she posted on the social network Bluesky on Tuesday evening.
While Vance has been sharply critical of the EU's "excessive international regulations" on technology, arguing that they stifle innovation and create unnecessary barriers for American companies, he and von der Leyen are actually quite aligned when it comes to AI. While Vance has called for rules that won't stifle the growing sector, von der Leyen has promised that the EU will cut red tape.
The EU's chief technology sovereignty officer, Hena Virkunen, was also in Paris, pledging to make Europe's regulatory framework "more innovation-friendly." She pledged to simplify AI and technology rules as part of the EU's push to make regulation easier. "I also take very seriously the criticism we get" from small businesses and industry "that we have too much bureaucracy and administrative hurdles," she said.
This, however, does not mean that the EU is giving up on its rules - Ursula Von der Leyen mentioned the new Artificial Intelligence Law as a single set of security rules for the entire bloc.
But it was her announcement of tens of billions of euros in AI computing that attracted the most attention. French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, used the summit to announce an investment of 109 billion euros in AI over the coming years.
During an exclusive dinner on Monday night, the French president, in the presence of Vance, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and senior officials from around the world, including China, stressed the need for the EU to become a leader in the use of artificial intelligence. The dinner guests rarely mentioned security issues, except for Meredith Whitaker, an AI ethics activist and CEO of messaging app Signal, who stressed the need to protect privacy.
Concerned group
The politician's change of tone has been well received in the artificial intelligence industry, especially given the tight regulatory scrutiny that some companies, such as chatbot technology pioneer OpenAI, have faced in Europe.
OpenAI executives highlighted this political shift at a press reception held on the sidelines of the summit, although they stressed that security issues still need to be addressed and that trust in AI needs to grow.
"But we also have to be willing to embrace innovation, because perhaps the biggest risk of all is missing out on the economic opportunities that this technology brings," Chris Lehane, chief global affairs officer at OpenAI, told reporters.
One AI company, however, has deviated from the industry's united front - Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said that "international conversations about AI must fully embrace the growing security risks of this technology."
AI companies this week released updated security frameworks they promised at a summit in Seoul last May. But they failed to make any new commitments, raising concerns among those who fear the existential risks of AI.
Max Tegmark, president of the Future of Life Foundation, which focuses on the potential harmful impact of AI, described the final declaration as "a huge step backwards."
"It effectively negates the consensus reached at Bletchley," he said, comparing the Paris event to the 2023 summit.
Digital rights groups have also expressed their displeasure with politicians' soft approach to tech companies. Brussels-based digital rights group EDRi has strongly criticized the EU's decision to include the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) in its regulatory simplification initiative.
"By doing so, they are encouraging deregulation, catering to US and tech corporations, while destroying the rare but hard-won victories of civil society in the fight for human rights through the AI Act," said Blu Duangjai Thiaworabun, policy advisor at EDRi.
The British delegate to the event, Peter Kyle, was less concerned, in line with the Labour government's new priority on economic growth. "I think it's crucial to understand what the purpose of security is," he said. "My criticism of the Bletchley Summit was that it was 100% about security," he added. Since then, the new government has invested enormous energy in balancing that approach, so that now that we have resolved the security issue, we can put that security into the function of development."
Translation: NB
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