French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday urged the world’s wealthy democracies to work together on regulating advanced artificial intelligence systems, speaking at a high-level meeting that included top AI executives.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman issued a similar plea at the Group of Seven summit of major industrialized nations in France, saying an “international forum” is needed for countries to draw up AI guardrails. He said the task of AI safety should not be left to tech companies.
Overshadowing the discussion on AI was President Donald Trump’s administration’s directive last week, preventing foreign nationals from using Anthropic’s newest and most powerful artificial intelligence models.
Macron said it was a “good thing” that U.S. officials recognize that so-called frontier AI models could be dangerous, but he also criticized it as a “strictly nationalist” reaction.
The remarks followed a G7 working lunch that brought together AI industry figures, including leaders of three of the most powerful AI companies — Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei — on the theme of “ensuring a safe, rapid and effective deployment of artificial intelligence.”
Trump’s feud with Anthropic has unsettled many outside the US
Ahead of the meeting, the White House’s dispute with Anthropic fueled distrust in Europe about American dominance of AI and tech ecosystems.
The company was forced on Friday to take its latest artificial intelligence models, known as Fable 5 and Mythos 5, offline to comply with the directive. The AI giant said it did not believe the steps taken by the government were warranted by the concern it flagged about a potential security issue.
When asked by a reporter whether France and other G7 countries had asked Trump to permit access to Anthropic’s latest AI models, Macron said he made a forceful plea for the U.S. not to keep cutting-edge AI to itself.
Macron warned of a possible drop in value for U.S. firms pioneering the disruptive technology if they switch off access like a light switch. Macron backed his appeal for partnership among key democracies with an insurance policy: France, he said, will boost funding for its own AI industry, so it’s not left behind if international cooperation breaks down.
Democratic countries ultimately want to prevent authoritarian regimes from getting access to advanced AI systems, Macron said.
“So let us move forward together,” he said. “Our relevant agencies must first cooperate so that, in the areas of security and cybersecurity, we have a smooth government-to-government relationship.”
Altman said in his lunch speech, attended by the G7 leaders and more than a dozen AI bosses, that the technology’s future must be shaped by people, democratic institutions and society as a whole, “not just by the companies building the most capable systems.”
“We need an international forum for discussion that establishes globally accepted standards for testing, provides expert and impartial analysis of capabilities and risks, and serves as a venue for cooperation among nations,” he said.
Europeans have sought checks on American AI dominance
Even before the Anthropic episode, there was growing distrust of American companies dominating AI and other tech ecosystems. In Brussels, the European Commission unveiled a tech sovereignty package this month with plans to boost homegrown AI, and at the Vatican, the pope last month called for robust regulation of artificial intelligence.
Trump’s intervention with Anthropic highlighted how Europe, Canada or other countries “can be put in an extremely vulnerable position” if they are cut off from advanced AI models, said Zach Meyers, director of research at CERRE, a Brussels-based think tank.
“There is a general anxiety about the state of Europe, the fact that we’re relying on other countries for quite important strategic infrastructure and a desire to do something about it, whatever that is,” Meyers said.
At the G7, Aidan Gomez, CEO of Canada’s Cohere AI, said a “number of proposals” were discussed on working together on AI governance and regulation.
“I think the consensus was we need something,” he told The Associated Press.
He said he told the gathering that democracies should focus their efforts on making sure the G7 “doesn’t just produce the most capable AI, but also the second most capable AI,” a reference to the U.S. and China being the world’s only two major AI powers.
Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, also attended the meeting, along with the heads of smaller AI labs, including France’s Mistral, Germany’s Black Forest Labs, Italy’s Domyn, Sakana AI of Japan and United Kingdom-based Synthesia.
The G7 comprises France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK. Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea were among guest nations invited to participate in some discussions.
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