Those who are distrustful of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have summed up the fourth AI Summit held in Paris on February 10 and 11: a great theater, apparently worried about the dangers that this technology entails, but ultimately pulling their interests, with everything agreed from the beginning. They have been present, close to a hundred heads of state, next to the companies that invest in the AA sector.

Because there have been interesting talks and speakers at the summit to reflect on issues of general interest, the environment, control or other complicated issues in themselves. The independent media Mediapart has brought to its attention the following ideas fished from it: “We need to get away from the idea that we need more AI so that we can reflect on what is really useful to us” (AI Accountability Lab researcher Abeba Birhane); “The multitude of examples show us that so far AI has been imposed on citizens through, among other things, surveillance” and “if AI companies are in strong competition with each other, even though they have almost the same data, and more or less, they are all in partnership” (AI Distributed Research Institute NYOSI).

But rather than investing in programs to address risks, both states and multinationals that have been at the top have focused on investments in support of AI’s vibrant development. Among them, the European Union. Even in the current situation between China and the US, powerful in the field of AI, because Brussels also wants to make its place and become a leader.

Europe also wants to be a leader

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has informed the summits about the commitment to channel investments in the AI sector.It calls the programme InvestAI and allocates EUR 200 billion, explaining: “AI will improve our health arts, drive research, advance innovation. We will have the strength to be good and to grow.” It foresees the creation of four gigafabricas of AA in the European Union, each with around 100,000 chips for state-of-the-art AA – a capacity four times greater than in today’s infrastructures. The money will be channelled through various European programmes, to which the European Central Bank has also expressed its support, the States can also contribute money, but it would mainly be subsidised by private sector companies – which should allocate 150 billion euros.

The name of the EU AI Champions Initiative and the 60 European companies have also launched a position in favor of this leadership. These include Airbus, L'Oréal, Mercedes, Siemens, Spotify, Mistral AI, Dassault, among others, which have clearly extended their demand to the European authorities for "drastic regulatory relief". The same position has basically been made heard by the Vice President of the United States, J-D Vance: "Excessive regulation that can kill the developing industry."

However, the feasibility of competing with the U.S. and Chinese leadership is somewhat undermined by the knowledge that the responsibility for this program has been entrusted to the General Catalyst society... and the latter to the American idela.

Beautiful goals in words: Declaration by the 61 Heads of State or State

“Standing for an AA that is sustainable for citizens and the planet”, 61 heads of state have signed a joint declaration. In other words, they have spread the message of an AA that would be “open”, “inclusive” and “ethical” since the summit in Paris.

In this regard, they are committed to the creation of an Energy Impact Observatory for Artificial Intelligence led by the International Energy Agency. According to this agency, because from 2022 to 2026 the consumption of electricity produced by the AA sector will increase by 75%. The United States and the United Kingdom are not among the signatories.

The AA Summits so far have been held in the United Kingdom, South Korea and the French State and it is reported that the next one will pass in India on the last day of the Paris Summit. This year, India was already leading with the French State.

Although silently held by the mainstream media and social media, the artist Joanie Lemercier channeled the artistic action to inform about the dangers of AI on January 27, projecting luminous messages as they entered the palasio that would guide the summit. These include Elon Musk’s Nazi greeting with the message “Fascist,” “AI Kills,” “Big Brother is watching you,” or “Anti-Tech Résistance.” Here is a picture of one of them: