Paris, France, 10-11 February, 2025 — Against the backdrop of rapid AI advancements and mounting ethical concerns, the 2025 Paris AI Action Summit concluded with a bold vision: to reshape the future of artificial intelligence as a force for global equity, sustainability, and accountability. Hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the two-day summit brought together 100+ nations, tech giants, civil society leaders, and grassroots advocates to confront AI’s most urgent challenges—and opportunities.
A Summit of Firsts
The Paris AI Action Summit marked a significant milestone in international collaboration on artificial intelligence. For the first time, a diverse assembly of stakeholders—including government leaders, international organizations, private sector representatives, and academia—convened to deliberate on AI’s role in society. The summit emphasised an open, multi-stakeholder approach to ensure AI development is human-centric, ethical, safe, secure, and trustworthy.
Major Announcements
- InvestAI Initiative: The European Union unveiled the InvestAI program, aiming to mobilize €200 billion for AI investments. This initiative includes a new European fund of €20 billion dedicated to establishing AI gigafactories across Europe, enhancing the continent’s infrastructure for training complex AI models. This initiative, led by General Catalyst, will also collaborate with the European Commission to simplify AI regulation and accelerate AI adoption.
- France’s €109 Billion AI Investment: President Macron announced that France’s AI sector will receive private sector investments totalling approximately €109 billion. This substantial funding underscores France’s commitment to strengthening its position in the global AI landscape.
- Public Interest AI Platform: President Macron launched Current AI, a public interest foundation backed by an initial $400 million from the French government, philanthropists, and industry partners. Current AI will focus on democratizing access to datasets, investing in open-source AI tools, and measuring AI’s societal impact. Eleven state governments, including several EU members, are supporting the foundation.
- ROOST Initiative: The Robust Open Online Safety Tools (ROOST) initiative debuted at the summit, bringing together tech leaders to develop free, open-source safety tools for organizations. ROOST will focus on AI for enhanced online safety.
- AI and Data Privacy Standards: Data authorities from six nations signed a joint declaration to collaborate on data privacy standards for AI systems, emphasizing the need for data and privacy protections to be integrated into AI design.
- AI in Defense: French startup Mistral AI and European defense technology company Helsing announced a partnership to develop AI systems for defense applications, including vision-language-action models for enhanced decision-making in complex scenarios.
Commitment to Inclusive and Sustainable AI
A key outcome of the summit was the Statement on Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet, which outlines priorities such as promoting AI accessibility to reduce digital divides, ensuring AI is ethical and trustworthy, and reinforcing international cooperation for effective AI governance. This statement builds on the principles established in the Bletchley Declaration and the Seoul Declaration, both of which emphasise the need for responsible AI development and international collaboration. 60 countries signed the declaration, including Canada, China, France, and India. However, the US and UK did not sign the final statement.
As for the UK, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated: “We felt that the declaration didn’t provide enough practical clarity on global governance and didn’t sufficiently address harder questions around national security and the challenge that AI poses to it.” The statement reaffirmed the UK’s stance that “security remains a vital part of AI’s future,” with a commitment to continued discussions on this issue.
Side Events and Key Discussions
Alongside the main summit, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change hosted a fringe event in Paris: “Governing in the Age of AI.” This session featured discussions on AI’s economic impact, governance, and safety, emphasising the need for ethical leadership, strategic investment, and balanced regulations. One of the most engaging sessions at the Data for Policy 2024 conference, “Transforming Governance with AI & Trustworthiness,” featured Alexander Iosad, Senior Adviser at the Tony Blair Institute, who shared his insights on trustworthy AI governance. More readings on Governing in the Age of AI.
Additionally, Data for Policy CIC Director Stefaan Verhulst joined another side event at the summit, organized by UNESCO’s Information For All Programme (IFAP) Working Group on Information Accessibility (WGIA) in collaboration with the IFAP Working Group on Information Ethics. The roundtable focused on “The Future of AI Governance: In Search of a Balance.”
Major AI Initiatives Set the Stage for 2025 Paris AI Action Summit
Ahead of and during the 2025 Paris AI Action Summit, several major initiatives have been launched to address the rapid advancements in AI and ensure its responsible development. The UK Government has introduced an AI Playbook to guide ethical AI implementation across public services, fostering innovation and trust. Alongside this, the UK’s AI Growth Zones are designed to accelerate sector innovation. In Europe, the Competitiveness Compass aims to boost technological leadership and economic resilience, positioning Europe as a leader in AI. The International AI Safety Report 2025, led by AI experts like Yoshua Bengio, highlights the need for a unified approach to AI safety. Additionally, the OpenEuroLLM project, supported by 20 European institutions, is focused on developing multilingual AI models with an emphasis on transparency and compliance. The UK’s pioneering AI cybersecurity standard is set to protect AI systems and bolster the resilience of AI-driven products, further advancing the global conversation on AI governance. The State of Digital Government Review highlights the immense potential of the UK’s digital public sector while emphasising the need for significant reform to fully leverage opportunities presented by AI and emerging technologies. These initiatives set the stage for robust discussions at the Paris Summit on how AI can contribute to the public good, sustainability, and accountability.
Data for Policy CIC: Advancing AI Governance and Policy Research
The discussions at the summit and recent policy developments around AI closely align with Data for Policy CIC’s mission to bridge research, policy, and practice for AI governance. At the Data for Policy 2024 Conference—held at Imperial College London under the theme Trustworthy Governance with AI—experts explored key challenges in AI governance, the evolving role of generative AI, and the need to prioritize AI for public good over existential risk narratives.
The conference featured thought-provoking sessions from leading experts, including Dr. Jennifer Prendki (Google DeepMind), A. Aldo Faisal (Imperial College London), Russell Wald (Stanford HAI), Friederike Schüür (UNICEF), Andrea Renda (CEPS), and Gina Neff (Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy). Their insights on responsible AI, policy frameworks, and public-sector investment in AI research are available on the Data for Policy YouTube channel.
Our first region-focused Special Track on AI Ethics and Policy Governance in Africa, organized by the Global Center on AI Governance, brought critical regional perspectives into the global conversation. The discussions highlighted the contributions of experts from Sub-Saharan Africa and emphasized the need for more inclusive AI governance frameworks. To access the special collection of articles derived from this special track, visit here.
Beyond the conference, Data & Policy—a peer-reviewed journal published by Cambridge University Press—continues to shape AI policy discourse. Since 2019, it has published groundbreaking research, including “Exploring Citizens’ Stances on AI in Public Services: A Social Contract Perspective” and “AI for Peace: Mitigating the Risks and Enhancing Opportunities.” Read more articles.
The 2025 Paris AI Action Summit set a precedent for international collaboration in harnessing artificial intelligence for the collective benefit of humanity, emphasizing the need for ethical frameworks, substantial investments, and inclusive policies to guide AI’s future development. In line with these efforts, Data for Policy CIC remains committed to advancing this mission through its research, conferences, and policy engagement, fostering evidence-based decision-making and international collaboration.