The Trump administration wants the United States to lead the artificial-intelligence revolution and is urging American allies to join in with its light-touch approach to technology regulation or risk being left behind.
Although there were divisions between major nations—the U.S. and the U.K. did not sign a final statement endorsed by 60 nations calling for an “inclusive” and “open” AI sector.
Last year, in Seoul, the emphasis was on defining red-lines for the AI industry. The concern: that the technology, although holding great promise, also had the potential for great harm.
In a speech on Tuesday, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said: “I’m not here this morning to talk about AI safety, which was the title of the conference a couple of years ago. I’m here to talk about AI opportunity.”
Emmanuel Macron, the French leader and summit host, also delivered a very pro-business message, emphasising how eager countries across the world are to gain an advantage in the creation of new AI systems.
The emphasis on developing the AI sector while ignoring safety issues was in stark contrast to the first-ever global AI summit, which will be hosted at Bletchley Park in the United Kingdom.
The second global gathering, in Seoul in 2024, built on this foundation, with leaders securing voluntary safety commitments from leading AI players such as OpenAI, Google, Meta, and their counterparts in China, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.
The 2025 summit in Paris, governments and AI companies agreed at the time, would be the place to define red-lines for AI: risk thresholds that would require mitigations at the international level.
Paris, however, went the other way.
Anthropic, an AI company focused on safety, called the event a “missed opportunity.”
The U.K., which hosted the first AI summit, said it had declined to sign the Paris declaration because of a lack of substance.
“We felt the declaration didn’t provide enough practical clarity on global governance, nor sufficiently address harder questions around national security and the challenge AI poses to it,” said a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
