Heads of state and leading technologists will gather in Paris starting on Monday for a high-stakes global gathering on the promises and perils of artificial intelligence amid a global race underway for the best tools to take advantage of the exploding new technology.
The U.S. and China are sending top officials to the gathering, as the tech rivals look to build support for their competing visions of a future where they each control critical technology.
The new Trump administration’s view of AI standards and rules will come into fuller view at the summit which Vice President J.D. Vance will attend in his first trip abroad since Inauguration Day.
Soon after taking office, Mr. Trump trashed an AI executive order signed by President Biden and issued a new order directing the development of a new, more assertive “AI Action Plan” without some of the “guardrails” Mr. Biden’s order had tried to put in place.
The plan’s goal is to “sustain and enhance America’s AI dominance,” according to the White House, which began soliciting public input for the plan on Thursday. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said the plan will define federal priorities and prevent burdensome requirements from hindering innovation.
“The Trump administration is committed to ensuring the United States is the undeniable leader in AI technology,” said Lynne Parker, OSTP principal deputy director, in a statement. “This AI Action Plan is the first step in securing and advancing American AI dominance.”
Other nations looking to make a mark in the AI sector will be on hand as well, with French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi serving as co-chairs of the summit. It’s the third, and by far the biggest, summit looking for a globally coordinated approach to AI development, with some 80 nations expected to send representatives.
China’s presence is expected to be led by Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, the personal envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said the vice premier’s presence is intended “to demonstrate China’s responsible attitude as a major country in the field of AI and its commitment to advancing the development and security of AI.”
“Through this summit, China looks forward to enhancing communication and exchanges with all sides, pooling consensus for cooperation and actively advancing the implementation of the U.N. Global Digital Compact,” the spokesman said at a press conference last week.
Mr. Lin said China would also welcome countries to join its “2025 World AI Conference” in China where it plans to “shape an AI global governance framework based on broad consensus and promote AI for good and for all.”
The summit comes on the heels of international controversy surrounding the sudden rise in popularity of China’s DeepSeek. The Chinese AI firm sent shockwaves through markets worldwide last month when it advertised a new model that it claimed was on par with that of U.S. market leader OpenAI and had been developed for a tiny fraction of the cost.
Much doubt persists about the true cost of DeepSeek’s work and skeptics inside the Trump administration and Silicon Valley’s private labs doubt the hype about the Chinese firm. Commerce Secretary-nominee Howard Lutnick has accused DeepSeek of stealing American intellectual property to fashion its AI app, and OpenAI is among those reportedly investigating the potential thievery.
OpenAI unveiled an advanced tool it called “deep research” last week, which served as the American firm’s answer to the buzz generated by DeepSeek. Deep research is OpenAI’s new AI agent that promises to help users complete tasks in tens of minutes that would ordinarily take several hours. Google released its own “deep research” agent in December.
OpenAI is also a major part of the creation of the Stargate project, working to develop a new company intending to invest $500 billion to build AI infrastructure in America. Mr. Trump hosted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son at the White House for the announcement of the project one day after taking office.
China is not the only one looking to foreign partners to help accomplish its AI agenda. While China looks to recruit other nations at the upcoming AI summit, America is counting on MGX, a government-created investment fund from the United Arab Emirates. OpenAI identified MGX as one of the initial funders for the $500 billion endeavor.
Ahead of the summit, Mr. Macron reportedly told French media that the summit was about creating rules for the technology and its applications, because “AI cannot be the Wild West.”
While saying the summit participants should not be “afraid of innovation,” Mr. Macron added, “There have to be rules. … There are all kinds of fields where we don’t want AI, because we don’t want it creating discrimination or mass control in our society.”
The website for the AI Action Summit makes clear that its participants understand no “single governance initiative” will oversee AI worldwide.
“The aim is clear: to build a consensus on the global governance framework for artificial intelligence, with and for all parties,” the website said.
Included among the many partners at the summit are speakers including Microsoft President Brad Smith, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and several representatives from OpenAI.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.