Emmanuel Macron will snub Rishi Sunak’s flagship AI summit next week in a blow for the British Prime Minister.
The Telegraph can reveal the French president will be skipping the gathering at Bletchley Park in favour of a trip to central Asia despite previously being tipped to attend.
He is the fourth G7 leader believed to be sitting it out, along with US president Joe Biden, German chancellor Olaf Scholz and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Italian leader Giorgia Meloni has reportedly confirmed her attendance, while it is understood Japan hasn’t made a final decision about whether to send prime minister Fumio Kishida.
A majority of G7 allies opting not to send their leaders could prove awkward for Mr Sunak, who has sought to use the AI summit to position the UK as a trailblazer on the world stage.
Macron had been expected
Mr Macron had been expected to attend until recently. It is now understood he will spend next week in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan instead.
An Elysée source said: “We had a look into (Mr Macron coming) but he won’t be in Europe.”
All the G7 nations are likely to send a tech minister at the very least, while the White House confirmed on Thursday that vice president Kamala Harris will stand in for Mr Biden.
Ms Harris will also give a “major policy speech” on America’s vision for the future of AI in London on November 1, the first day of the summit, before she heads to Bletchley Park.
It comes amid an escalating row over China’s involvement, with Liz Truss urging Mr Sunak to rescind Beijing’s invitation.
The former prime minister said she was “deeply disturbed” to learn the UK had offered China a seat at the table given its “fundamentally different attitude” to the nascent technology.
‘Right’ to invite Chinese
Mr Sunak insisted it was “right” to invite the Chinese to the summit as there can be “no serious strategy” for AI without attempting to engage with tech superpowers.
But he admitted Beijing has still not confirmed whether it is coming less than a week out from the gathering, raising the prospect of a potentially embarrassing snub.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, published on Thursday, Ms Truss urged Mr Sunak to “reconsider” the invitation.
She warned China has “a fundamentally different attitude to the West about AI, seeing it as a means of state control and a tool for national security”.
She continued: “In any case, no reasonable person expects China to abide by anything agreed at this kind of summit, given their cavalier attitude to international law.
“I am therefore requesting that you reconsider the invitation you have extended to China to next week’s summit.”
Downing Street said its position had not changed following the intervention.
It came after Mr Sunak used a speech at the Royal Society in London to warn humanity faces “extinction” if AI tech spirals out of control.
‘AI will be as transformative’
He said he “genuinely believes” AI will be as transformative as the Industrial Revolution, the discovery of electricity or the birth of the internet.
But he stressed it will bring fresh dangers as well as opportunities, with the threat comparable to “pandemics and nuclear war”.
“Get this wrong and it could make it easier to build chemical or biological weapons,” he said.
“Terrorist groups could use AI to spread fear and disruption on an even greater scale.
“Criminals could exploit AI for cyber attacks, disinformation, fraud or even child sexual abuse.”
In the “most unlikely but extreme cases”, he said there is even a risk humanity could lose its grip on the technology entirely.
But he said he wanted to be “completely clear” that this is not something people “need to be losing sleep over right now”.
He was keen to stress potential benefits too, such as groundbreaking dementia treatments or cancer jabs.
Despite concerns over the pace of development, the Prime Minister said the UK will not “rush to regulate” AI, insisting it is important not to stifle innovation.
He added: “In any case, how can we write laws that make sense for something that we don’t yet fully understand?”
‘World’s first AI safety institute’
Mr Sunak also unveiled plans for “the world’s first AI safety institute” in the UK.
He added that Britain will use next week’s summit to propose a new “global expert panel” tasked with publishing a “state of AI science report”.
The Lib Dems branded the snub “embarrassing”, warning at this rate Mr Sunak might end up with “no heavy hitters around the table”.
Layla Moran, the party’s foreign affairs spokesman, said: “It’s embarrassing that yet another world leader appears to have snubbed Rishi Sunak’s AI summit. Sunak’s decision not to attend the UN General Assembly and make the case for the importance of this summit is looking worse by the day.
“At this rate Sunak risks hosting a summit with no heavy hitters around the table.
“It raises serious questions about the cost to the public purse of this event.”