The European AI industry is accelerating its catch-up, with investment and competition becoming the main themes of the Paris AI Summit.
This week’s AI summit in Paris shifted its focus from previous years' emphasis on AI safety to investment and international competition, as Europe seems to be emulating Silicon Valley's &#34;accelerationism&#34; concept, striving to keep pace with AI development.
The French government announced a series of major initiatives at the summit aimed at boosting its domestic AI industry:
<ul>
<li>France has committed to providing 1 gigawatt of nuclear power for the construction of new national data centers to meet its AI computing needs.</li>
<li>French AI startup Mistral has reached a defense cooperation agreement with Helsing to develop a &#34;vision-language-action model&#34; to support military operations.</li>
<li>French telecom billionaire Xavier Niel vowed to fight for European AI, committing to invest billions of euros to fund French entrepreneurs and announcing an additional €3 billion for infrastructure development and the establishment of Europe’s first private independent AI laboratory, Kyutai.</li>
</ul>
In contrast, the non-binding statement on AI safety released at the end of the summit was limited to vague phrases such as &#34;ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, and reliable, while considering all international frameworks&#34; and &#34;sustainable for humanity and the planet,&#34; which has almost become an afterthought.
Notably, the United States and the United Kingdom refused to sign the statement. Joshua Browder from DoNotPay believes:
<blockquote>
&#34;The 'commitment' of the U.S. and the U.K. to AI safety is no longer a priority. Previously, the concept of AI safety was about controlling risks, but now it’s about having the best talent and the best technology.&#34;
</blockquote>
James Cham from Bloomberg Beta Ventures analyzed:
<blockquote>
&#34;This conference was initially about AI safety, but it has clearly shifted to how to make money in the AI field.&#34;
</blockquote>
Currently, Europe lags far behind the U.S. in AI investment, with the overall scale of the tech industry still quite small, and aside from ASML in the Netherlands, there are hardly any other globally leading tech companies. However, data shows that funding for European AI startups is showing signs of recovery.
According to PitchBook data, funding for European AI startups reached $16.2 billion in 2024, a rebound from $12.9 billion in 2023, although there remains a significant gap compared to the U.S. funding scale of $100.9 billion

ASML

This week's AI summit in Paris shifted its focus from emphasizing AI safety in previous years to investment and international competition. Europe seems to be emulating Silicon Valley's concept of "accelerationism," making every effort to catch up with the pace of AI development

- The AI summit in Paris shifted focus from safety to investment and international competition, with Europe aiming to catch up to AI advancements.  
- France announced significant initiatives, including a commitment to provide 1 gigawatt of nuclear power for new data centers and funding for AI startups, while the summit's non-binding safety statement was largely seen as an afterthought.  
- Despite Europe's lag in AI investment compared to the U.S., funding for European AI startups is showing signs of recovery, reaching $16.2 billion in 2024, up from $12.9 billion in 2023.

Paris AI Summit: All about investment and competition, "safety" has been thrown aside