As global leaders convene in Paris for a landmark summit on artificial intelligence (AI), experts are urging tighter regulation to prevent AI systems from escaping human oversight. The two-day event, co-hosted by France and India, focuses on fostering global governance and sustainability in AI development, emphasizing opportunities alongside risks.
Unlike previous summits in Bletchley Park (2023) and Seoul (2024), which prioritized safety concerns, France aims to promote international collaboration without enforcing binding rules. Anne Bouverot, AI envoy for French President Emmanuel Macron, highlighted this balanced approach: “We don’t want to spend our time talking only about risks. There’s the very real opportunity aspect as well.”
A Call for Leadership
Max Tegmark, MIT physicist and head of the Future of Life Institute, emphasized the urgency of this moment. “France has been a wonderful champion of international collaboration and has the opportunity to really lead the rest of the world,” Tegmark stated. His institute also supported the launch of the Global Risk and AI Safety Preparedness (GRASP) platform, which aims to address major AI risks through a database of 300 tools and solutions. Insights from GRASP will be shared with the OECD and the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), a coalition of nearly 30 nations.
Emerging Risks and Global Cooperation
The summit follows the release of the first International AI Safety Report, compiled by 96 experts and endorsed by 30 countries, the UN, the EU, and the OECD. The report outlines a range of AI-related risks, from online misinformation to more severe threats such as cyberattacks and biological warfare. Renowned computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, who coordinated the report, warns of a potential “loss of control” over AI systems, which might act with self-preservation motives.
“We’re closer to building artificial general intelligence (AGI) than we are to understanding how to control it,” Tegmark cautioned. AGI, a form of AI capable of outperforming humans across all domains, is no longer a distant concept, with experts like OpenAI’s Sam Altman suggesting its arrival within years.
A Crossroads for Humanity
As the Paris summit unfolds, leaders face a critical decision: seize the opportunity to regulate AI responsibly or risk losing control over technologies with far-reaching implications. With calls for global action growing louder, the summit could define the trajectory of AI development for decades to come.