The AI Action Summit held on 10 and 11 February in Paris, and co-chaired by India and France, brought together global leaders, tech executives, and civil society representatives to discuss the future of artificial intelligence (AI). Discussions focused on AI developments for public interest, its impact on employment, its role in innovation and culture, trust and global governance.

At the end of the event, several participating countries (including China, but not the US) signed a “Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence,” calling for AI development to be "open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy, taking into account international frameworks for all" and "making AI sustainable for people and the planet." In parallel, France announced the "Current AI" partnership, a collaborative initiative with Chile, Finland, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, Germany, Slovenia and Switzerland, along with various associations and companies, aimed at promoting "AI for the common good."

The Summit and its results raised enthusiasm but also criticism, and it is impossible to assess its real impact. However, President Macron took the occasion to state loud and clear that France wants to be in the first ranks of the AI global race thanks to a pioneer role in “frugal AI”. Ahead of the AI summit, he launched an extensive AI plan to fuels these leading ambitions. Measures span from the creation of 35 datacentres and 9 centres of excellence, to dedicated educational programmes in schools and increased use of the AI in the public administration. Paris also plans for training 100,000 AI professionals per year by 2030.

Most importantly, President Macron announced a historic €109 billion investment plan for AI, to be funded by private investors from US and Canadian investments funds, as well as French companies such as Iliad, Thales and Orange. The plan includes a partnership with the UAE to establish an AI campus and eco-friendly data centre (€30-50 billion). The amount is considerable. As President Macron stated, this is “the equivalent for France of what the US has announced with 'Stargate'," a €484 billion AI investment project”. To make a comparison, EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, announced at the Summit that Europe will mobilise €200 billion for IA investments, of which €20 billion will be devoted to gigafactories.

France can build up on several strengths. The €2.5 billion invested in AI since 2018, including €1.5 billion for research, allowed for the creation of a national AI ecosystem consisting of about 750 start-ups and employing 35,000 people. Among these firms, Mistral AI is challenging American and Chinese AI giants, thanks to a “frugal” approach similar to the Chinese Deepseeker, and a newly launched AI assistant on iOS and Android (named “Le Chat”) that claims to be 10 times faster than its rivals, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Mistral AI signed several contracts with companies during the Summit, including the European defence technology Helsing, to jointly develop Vision-Language-Action models for enhanced human-AI collaboration on the battlefield.

French ambitions in AI are not limited to the civilian sector. Paris wants to become the leading AI military power in Europe and one of the top three in the world, as the Defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, reaffirmed in the opening speech of the Military talks on AI held on 10 February in the sidelines of the Paris Action Summit.

Military experts and representatives of different companies shared their views AI’s impact on the battlefield, discussing the challenges that are shared with the civilian sector (such as governance, sovereignty, ethics, frugality), but also those specific to defence. Shashank Joshi, defence editor of The Economist and former researcher at RUSI and Oxford University, identified three of them in his speech: the crucial role of training for the military, the importance of the context (same weapons can be used in different environments) and the fact that the line between ISR/AI suggestions and C2/AI decisions is becoming blurred, creating difficulties in maintaining human control.

One of the most interesting roundtables hosted French Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, and Jeroen Van der Vlugt, Chief Information Officer at the Dutch Ministry of defence. According to Admiral Vandier, AI’s effective integration into the OODA (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act) loop, and its role in robotics (especially swarming) and enhanced multi-domain operations are significantly reshaping doctrines. The current shift from platform-centric defence systems to data-centric defence systems is a huge revolution, which requires an urgent amelioration of data access and harmonisation of data policies (ethics, secrecy) at the NATO level. The Admiral stressed that the AI is not the silver bullet, it does not solve war alone, rather creates new military dilemmas, such as a fog of data. Consequently, building trust and resiliency (what to do if the system does not work) become of utmost importance, such as leaderships’ commitment (crucial for effectively conclude a digital transformation) and specific training.

Van der Vlugt identified a faster OODA loop, better quality prediction/analysis and scalability as the main effects that AI is having on the military, adding that increased data literacy at all levels is a precondition for a real AI integration in military process. He noted that there is a need to rethink investments at NATO levels, as AI “is a weapon per se and should be considered as such”. He stressed the need to find a good balance between sharing the relevant knowledge (for instance between the military and the scientific community) and preserving sovereignty on sensitive data, including the possibility of not sharing them with allies.

Discussions held during the two Summits are interesting and promising and show a general awareness about the revolution that AI can bring in both the civilian and the military sector. It remains to be seen whether the debate will translate into concrete action. The war in Ukraine, the first conventional conflict to use AI, is an invitation to move in this direction.

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