France is back in the AI race, Macron tells Paris summit

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron told major world leaders gathered at an AI summit in Paris that France was “back in the AI race”. His remarks came following the announcement that the country would be receiving AI private investments worth a total of 109 billion euros over the coming years.

Talking to the state, Macron called on attendees to choose Europe for their business needs, saying that clean electric power distinguished France in addressing AI’s vast energy consumption.

“I have a good friend on the other side of the ocean saying ‘drill, baby, drill.’ Here, there is no need to drill. It’s plug, baby, plug,” he said.

Heads of state, top government officials, CEOs and scientists from around 100 countries are participating in the two-day international summit from Monday.

High-profile attendees include US Vice President JD Vance, on his first overseas trip since taking office, and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.

The summit, which gathers major players such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, aims at fostering AI advances in sectors like health, education, environment and culture.