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An artificial intelligence race is heating up between the United States and China — but don’t count Europe out.
That is the case President Emmanuel Macron of France made this week as his country hosts an A.I. summit in Paris, where government leaders, top tech executives and academic experts gathered on Monday to discuss the fears and hopes surrounding A.I technology.
“There’s a race to scale,” Mr. Macron told France 2 television on Sunday night under the soaring steel and glass roof of the Grand Palais, the exhibition hall where France and India have teamed up to hold the summit.
“Are we completely behind the curve? No,” Mr. Macron insisted as he urged Europe to invest heavily in its own A.I. abilities.
“Europe does not want to be left behind in this artificial intelligence race, and France, in particular, wants to show that it can be a leading player,” he said.
“France will also invest 100 billion euros in A.I. over the next five years to become one of the top countries in this area,” Mr. Macron said, adding that his country is determined to take its place as one of the global leaders in the development and application of A.I.
At similar gatherings in other countries, the focus was often on A.I.’s potential risks in terms of economic upheaval, disinformation and national security — like a 2023 summit in Britain that warned of the technology’s potentially “catastrophic” harm.
But the global mood has also shifted as A.I. becomes widespread, and countries jostle to build the technology’s next giant.
Last month, President Trump announced the so-called Stargate initiative that could eventually invest as much as $500 billion over the next four years in computing infrastructure to power A.I. And China shocked the tech world with DeepSeek, a company that developed powerful artificial intelligence at a fraction of the cost of its American counterparts.
France sees the summit as a crucial moment to spur A.I. investment in Europe, to get consumers on board with the fast-moving technology and to position Europe as a top contender — not just a leading regulator — in a global competition where the United States and China are so far the biggest players.
The conference also laid bare a nagging issue facing world leaders: how to stay atop a growing A.I. arms race while managing its associated fears, ranging from job losses to “deepfake” misinformation.
“I want to find the balance between encouraging A.I innovation in the E.U. and mitigating the most serious risks,” said Henna Virkkunen, a European Commission executive vice president responsible for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.
Airbus, the world’s largest plane maker, said it had integrated A.I. into many of its operations, including development and safety. It is one of more than 60 companies that have joined an E.U. A.I. Champions Initiative calling on Europe to become an A.I. global leader.
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