World leaders and Tech Bosses met in Paris in February for the 2025 Artificial Intelligence Action Summit. Hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the summit sought to foster growth and trust in the industry, whilst trying to build a framework for international cooperation for the new technology.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke at the event, stating she wanted Europe to become “one of the leading AI continents,” stressing the importance of Europe being at the forefront of the industry.

Von der Leyen also stated her desire to make sure Europe has its own “distinctive approach” to AI. She also spoke about the collaborative nature of European AI and how new technology can bring talents together from different “countries, sectors and backgrounds,” all whilst utilising European computing infrastructure. 

Also at the summit, a declaration was put forward to ensure AI was “inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy,” and to keep the industry sustainable for “people and the planet.” Despite 60 nations signing the document, the UK and the US refused to sign. 

A UK spokesperson said they felt the declaration didn’t “sufficiently address harder questions around national security and the challenge AI poses to it.”

US Vice President JD Vance was in attendance and criticised Europe’s regulation of AI, stating “Excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off.” 

Vance also spoke about his desire to ensure Europe looks towards the industry with “optimism rather than trepidation,” stating there was a need for “international regulatory regimes that foster the creation of AI technology rather than strangle it.”

The contrasting viewpoints between American and European leaders on AI regulation further highlighted the divide between America’s historical allies in Europe and the Trump Administration, with Macron criticising US President Donald Trump’s position on renewable energy at the summit, saying “I have a good friend on the other side of the ocean saying ‘drill, baby, drill.’ Here, thre is no need to drill. It’s plug, baby, plug. Electricity is available.”

Vance also spoke about the dangers of cooperating with authoritarian regimes with AI technologies. He could be referring to the new Chinese chatbot, DeepSeek. Developed by Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek works very similar to Chat GPT but at a much lower cost and with more efficiency. Researchers estimate it costs only a fraction of the US-based Open AI. 

The model was released in the US and immediately affected stock markets, with confidence in the long-established company Open AI dropping. The app was downloaded by millions of people, despite concerns about the chatbot’s habit of habit of avoiding politically sensitive subjects that would be censored in China.

The emergence of this new chatbot has been seen by many as a sign other nations may be challenging US dominance over the growing AI industry. Some even referred to the company’s overnight success as China’s Sputnik moment, while President Trump has said it is a “wakeup call” for US tech firms. 

Despite the chatbot’s popularity, US officials are pushing for it to be banned, with US Congress considering a bill to ban on the app on government devices over security concerns, as user data is stored in servers in China. South Korea has already banned new downloads of the app over privacy concerns. 

Nevertheless, many people are also concerned about the growth of AI. It is believed AI could potentially replace up to 300 million full-time jobs. Customer service, retail, translation, graphic design and manufacturing are just some sectors that could see large amounts of employees replaced by AI. 

As artificial intelligence grows more advanced, it’s unknown how many more are going to be affected.

By Sergi, aged 15.

Image supplied by Pixabay.