 "Police patrol outside of the entrance to the Grand Palais, which will be the venue for an upcoming AI Action Summit, in Paris. PM Narendra Modi will co-chair the two-day gathering, which begins February 10. AP")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is heading to France today (10 February).
Modi is set to co-chair the Paris AI summit with France’s President Emmanuel Macron.
After the AI Summit, Modi will address the India-France CEOs Forum and will also travel to Marseille.
The development comes just weeks after the US announced a $500 billion Stargate Project and China’s DeepSeek shocked Silicon Valley and roiled Wall Street with its low-cost AI software.
“PM will co-chair the AI Summit alongside President Macron of France. The PM will arrive in Paris on the evening of February 10. He will then attend a dinner hosted by President Macron at the Élysée Palace. On February 11, the Prime Minister will co-chair the AI Summit alongside President Macron. AI is bound to have—and is already having—a profound impact across all sectors of the economy, politics, society, and governance. Therefore, a summit like this is both significant and timely,” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.
“We are particularly interested in AI applications that are designed, developed, deployed, and used in a safe, humane, responsible, and trustworthy manner,” Misri added.
This will be Modi’s sixth visit to France.
But what do we know about the Paris AI Summit? What’s on the agenda?
Let’s take a closer look:
What do we know?
The summit , part of the Paris Peace Forum, is set to take place from February 10 to February 11 in Paris.
Representatives from over 100 countries are set to attend – as well as 1,000 stakeholders from the private sector and civil society.
Also read: Macron interview | What’s on agenda for talks with Modi, will France ban DeepSeek? Key takeawaysThe summit has its origins in the UK’s Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit – which took place in 2023.
As per Indian Express, that summit focused on the concerns about the threats posed to mankind by AI.
It resulted in 20 nations including the US, China and India signing the Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety.
The next year, the AI summit was held in Seoul where 16 top AI companies vowed to develop AI in a transparent manner.
This year, France is hosting the AI summit – which is an initiative of Macron.
What about the schedule?
From February 6 to February 7, the attention will be on pre-engagements core conference activities – which will lay the base for technical and policy discussions.
On February 8 and 9, AI’s creativity and its effect on arts and culture will be discussed
On February 10, the summit will officially open with Business Leaders Day.
Here, between 1,000 and 2,000 executives and entrepreneurs will come together to discuss AI defence applications, literacy initiatives, and high-level networking events.
February 11 will be the final day of the summit – Government Officials Day.
Here, Heads of State and governments will attend a plenary session at the Grand Palais in Paris.
According to Indian Express, Vice-President JD Vance is likely to attend the summit on behalf of the US.
China’s Vice Prime Minister Ding Xuexiang will also attend.
Senior executives from tech giants such as Microsoft and Google will also likely attend.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is also expected to take the stage on Tuesday, among other speakers, as per Reuters.
What’s on the agenda?
According to Indian Express, safety, governance, and innovation, are the main themes for this year’s summit.
It aims to deal with the increasing concentration of power in the hands of a select few companies such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta.
Key areas including open-source AI systems, clean energy for power data centres, the impact of AI on labour, AI helping developing nations, and promoting sovereignty are all on the agenda.
There will be five separate working groups at this year’s AI summit:
International governance
Future of work
Security and safety
AI for general interest
Innovation and culture.
The idea is to take forward the achievements of the Bletchley Park and Seoul summits.
As per Tech UK.org, the AI Summit is eyeing three main challenges – increasing the speed of AI development around the world and its implementation across all nations, managing the shift to AI while caring for individual freedoms and ensuring inclusivity, and bringing AI in line with humanist values for the collective benefit of all and the public interest.
With inputs from agencies