The Paris Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit, which will take place from February 10 to 11 at the Grand Palais, is expected to spotlight the “DeepSeek Shock” emanating from China. The event will focus on three key pillars of AI popularization: accessibility, sustainability, and safety—themes that have gained prominence from OpenAI to DeepSeek.
While DeepSeek raises concerns about safety due to excessive data collection and biased outputs, it also represents a positive step in democratizing high-performance AI through open-source technology, making it a significant case study for discussion.
Industry sources report that South Korean tech leaders, including Science and ICT Minister Yoo Sang Im, Naver CEO Choi Soo Yeon, Samsung Electronics’ CTO Jeon Kyung Hoon, and researchers from LG AI will attend the summit.
French Ambassador to South Korea Philippe Bertoux stated that the summit will draw approximately 100 heads of state and over 1,000 civil society activists. Notable participants include U.S. Vice President JD Vance, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Mistral AI co-founder Arthur Mensch.
The summit will bring together global policymakers, consumers, businesses, and researchers to discuss the path forward in the AI era. Key topics will include promoting AI accessibility while preventing overconcentration in specific sectors, addressing the growing energy demands of AI data centers, and developing inclusive AI governance frameworks that emphasize safety and intellectual property protection.
These discussions will likely reference China’s AI models and the DeepSeek phenomenon. DeepSeek exemplifies performance innovation with reduced reliance on costly infrastructure like AI chips. Crucially, their open-source nature has shifted the landscape of AI democratization, challenging U.S. dominance in the field.
However, DeepSeek also highlights the risks of AI systems collecting personal data under the guise of learning. As AI services go global, the summit will likely address how nations should respond to these emerging challenges.
Minister Yoo plans to share South Korea’s approach to balancing regulation and innovation in its AI Basic Law and propose South Korea’s leadership for the International AI Safety Research Institute Network.
While specifics remain undisclosed, Naver will present its efforts in developing inclusive and safe AI. The company is pioneering “Sovereign AI” projects in regions like the Middle East, focusing on underserved language communities.
Despite Europe’s strong AI companies like Mistral AI, the region has taken a more regulatory approach to AI than the U.S. and China. The recent EU AI Act exemplifies this stance, aiming to prevent U.S. and Chinese big tech from dominating European society and citizens’ lives through AI technology.