Paris AI Action Summit 2025: Who is attending and what is on the agenda?

It comes weeks after Chinese AI startup DeepSeek sent shock waves across the tech industry with its cost-efficient large language models (LLMs).

Here’s what you need to know about the Paris AI Action Summit and its potential impact on the tech industry.

What is the schedule of the Paris AI Action Summit? Who will attend?

The Summit will officially commence on Monday, February 10, at the Grand Palais in Paris. A forum with multiple stakeholders from around the world including, representatives of governments, businesses and civil society, researchers, artists and journalists will be held on Day 1.

Conferences, roundtable discussions, and presentations largely focused on AI solutions are also on the schedule.

The Summit of Heads of State and Government is set to take place on Tuesday, February 11. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is also expected to take the stage on Tuesday, among other speakers, as per Reuters.

Besides Modi and Macron, US Vice President JD Vance is likely to attend the Summit as part of the American delegation. Senior executives from tech giants such as Microsoft and Google will also reportedly be present.

What is on the agenda for the 2025 Paris AI Action Summit?

While the Summit’s agenda will broadly centre on themes of safety, governance, and innovation, reports suggest that a few key focus areas that will take centre stage include open-source AI systems, clean energy to power data centres, impact of AI on labour, distributing AI’s benefits to developing nations, and promoting sovereignty in a global AI market.

The Paris AI Action Summit builds on the AI Safety Summit held in the United Kingdom in 2023 and a smaller gathering in Seoul, South Korea, last year.

The UK Summit focused on the debate surrounding the ‘doomsday’ concerns posed by AI and led to the Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety that was signed by all 29 participating nations, including the US, China, and India.

Meanwhile, over 16 AI companies such as OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft, as well as firms from China, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) made voluntary commitments to develop AI in a transparent manner at the Seoul Summit.

Other programmes in the week

In the lead up to the Paris AI Summit, the Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris) is scheduled to host an international conference on AI, science, and society, on February 6 and 7. In addition, events dedicated to showcasing culture and AI will be held on February 8 and 9. It will look to address the ongoing debate among artists about using AI in their work and safeguarding their intellectual property (IP) rights.

Over 100 events officially affiliated with the AI Action Summit will take place on the sidelines of the plenary session, as per the official website.

These side-events are being organised by international bodies such as the UN, UNESCO, Council of Europe, as well as other countries. Some of them will be open to the public to “provide opportunities to engage in discussions on the major themes of the Summit.”

The fourth edition of The World AI Cannes Festival (WAICF) will be held from February 13 to February 15, with over 10,000 attendees, 220 AI-focused exhibitors, and 320 speakers set to participate in the conference on AI advancements in key sectors such as healthcare, banking & finance, manufacturing, and retail.