EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday urged the world's wealthy democracies to work together on regulating advanced artificial intelligence systems, speaking at 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 the Trump administration's directive last week preventing the use of Anthropic's newest and most powerful artificial intelligence models by foreign nationals.
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.”
Ahead of the meeting, the White House 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 U.S. President Donald 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 between 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.
Aidan Gomez, CEO of Canada’s Cohere AI, said a “number of proposals” were discussed on working together across the G7 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 U.K.-based Synthesia.
The G7 comprises France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea were among guest nations invited to participate in some discussions.
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Chan reported from London.
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