The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit (French: Sommet pour l'action sur l'intelligence artificielle or Sommet pour l'action sur l'IA, SAIA) was held at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, from 10 to 11 February 2025. Co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the summit brought together over 1,000 participants from more than 100 countries, including government leaders, international organisations, academic and research communities, the private sector, and civil society. It followed the 2023 AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park and the 2024 AI Seoul Summit, continuing a series of international discussions on Artificial intelligence governance.
The Paris meeting was deliberately framed as an "Action Summit" rather than a safety-focused gathering. While the Bletchley Park summit concentrated on catastrophic risks, the Paris event emphasised innovation, practical implementation, and economic opportunities, while also addressing a broader range of concerns such as environmental impact and labour market disruptions. This shift reflected a growing geopolitical competition in AI development, particularly following the release of a new model by Chinese startup DeepSeek that rivalled OpenAI's o1.
Background
The First International AI Safety Report was published on 29 January 2025, commissioned after the Bletchley Park summit. The report focused on risks and threats posed by general-purpose AI and was slated for discussion at the Paris summit as part of the "Trust in AI" pillar. In the weeks leading up to the event, government leaders had begun rallying around "national champions" in AI, partly in response to DeepSeek's advances.
On Sunday 9 February, President Macron posted a compilation of AI-generated deepfake video clips of himself on Instagram to publicise the summit. While acknowledging the humour, the real Macron stated in the video that using AI, "we can do some very big things: change healthcare, energy, life in our society."
Day 1 Proceedings
French special envoy Anne Bouverot opened the summit by discussing the environmental impact of AI, acknowledging that the technology's "current trajectory is unsustainable." General secretary Christy Hoffman of the UNI Global Union warned that "AI-driven productivity gains risk turning the technology into yet another engine of inequality, further straining our democracies."
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing expressed China's willingness "to work with other countries to promote development, safeguard security, and share achievements in the field of artificial intelligence." Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that while AI brings many risks, "The biggest risk is missing out," and discussed Google's investments in "deep research" agents that can autonomously search the Internet and compile analyses for users.
A new coalition, the Robust Open Online Safety Tools (ROOST) initiative, debuted at the summit. Supported by Google, Discord, OpenAI, and Roblox, and incubated at the Institute of Global Politics at Columbia University, ROOST is developing free, open-source tools to detect and report child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Closing the first day, President Macron emphasised that France's nuclear energy production can deliver the power required by AI companies. Declaring that Europe was "back in the race" for AI, he said the region was "too slow" for investors and called on the EU to "simplify regulation" and "resynchronize with the rest of the world."
Day 2 Proceedings
On 11 February, the French government announced a $400 million endowment for Current AI, a new foundation to support AI "public goods" including high-quality datasets and open-source tools and infrastructure. Launched by President Macron, Current AI is backed by nine governments - Finland, France, Germany, Chile, India, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Slovenia, and Switzerland - plus philanthropic organisations such as the Omidyar Group and the McGovern Foundation, and private companies including Google and Salesforce.
Another initiative, the Coalition for Sustainable AI, was launched by France, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It gained support from 11 countries, five international organisations, and 37 tech companies including EDF, IBM, Nvidia, and SAP.
The Summit of Heads of State and Government held a plenary session in the Grand Palais. Prime Minister Modi stressed the need to "democratise technology" and ensure "access to all, especially in the Global South." US Vice President JD Vance warned against "excessive regulation of the AI" which "could kill a transformative sector just as it's taking off," and cautioned leaders against cooperating with "authoritarian regimes" on AI - a comment widely interpreted as a reference to China.
Investments
The European Union made several investment announcements. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen launched InvestAI, a €200 billion initiative including €20 billion to build four AI gigafactories for training highly complex, very large models. A coalition of more than 60 European companies launched the EU AI Champions Initiative, led by venture capital firm General Catalyst, planning to invest €150 billion in AI-related businesses and infrastructure in Europe over five years.
President Macron announced that private investors had pledged nearly €110 billion for the AI sector in France. Financing of €30 to €50 billion is expected from the United Arab Emirates for a very large data centre campus, with another €20 billion from Canada's Brookfield Corporation. French startup Mistral AI and Helsing, a German-British company, announced a partnership to develop vision-language-action models for military use.
Reactions
The Financial Times editorial board noted that the Paris summit "highlighted a shift in the dynamics towards geopolitical competition," characterising it as "a new AI arms race" between the US and China, with Europe "trying to carve out its role." Fortune.com AI editor Jeremy Kahn described the summit as an "AI festival, complete with glitzy corporate side events and even a late night dance party," contrasting it with the more sober tone of earlier safety-focused meetings.
The summit's emphasis on investment and innovation over risk mitigation drew both praise and criticism. Supporters argued that Europe needed to accelerate its AI development to compete globally, while critics worried that the focus on economic opportunity could overshadow important safety and ethical considerations. The series of AI summits continued with the AI Impact Summit in Delhi, hosted by India in February 2026.
Legacy
The Paris AI Action Summit marked a significant evolution in international AI governance discussions, moving from a narrow focus on catastrophic risks to a broader agenda encompassing innovation, investment, and sustainable development. The event's large scale - over 1,000 participants from more than 100 countries compared to 29 governments at Bletchley Park - reflected the growing mainstream importance of AI across sectors. The initiatives launched at the summit, including Current AI and the Coalition for Sustainable AI, established ongoing institutional frameworks for international cooperation on AI development and governance.