PARIS: France hopes that world leaders and tech executives at an artificial intelligence summit in Paris will agree the AI revolution should be inclusive and sustainable, although it was unclear on Monday whether the United States would be supportive.
Eagerness to rein in AI has waned since previous summits in Britain and South Korea that focused world powers’ attention on the technology’s risks after ChatGPT’s viral launch in 2022.
As US President Donald Trump has torn up his predecessor’s AI guardrails to promote US competitiveness, pressure has built on the European Union to pursue a lighter-touch approach to AI to help keep European companies in the tech race.
A January 30 version of the non-binding draft statement on AI stewardship, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, called for an “inclusive approach” to AI that is multi-stakeholder, human rights-based and bolsters the developing world.
The draft statement laid out priorities that included “avoiding market concentration” and “making AI sustainable for people and the planet.”
US Vice President JD Vance could spell out the United States’ views when he gives a speech at the summit on Tuesday.
Trump’s early moves on AI have underscored how far the strategies to regulate AI in the United States, China and EU have diverged.
And many at the two-day summit that started on Monday pushed the EU to soften its own rulebook.
“If we want growth, jobs and progress, we must allow innovators to innovate, builders to build and developers to develop,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an op-ed in Le Monde newspaper.
Even the summit’s host, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “There’s a risk some decide to have no rules and that’s dangerous. But there’s also the opposite risk, if Europe gives itself too many rules.”
“We should not be afraid of innovation,” Macron told regional French newspapers.
European lawmakers last year approved the bloc’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology.
China’s DeepSeek challenged the United States’ AI leadership last month by freely distributing a human-like reasoning system, galvanizing geopolitical and industry rivals to race faster still.
More investment
Meanwhile, one early outcome from the summit was the launch of Current AI, a partnership of countries such as France and Germany and industry players including Google and Salesforce.
With an initial $400 million in investment, the partnership will spearhead public-interest projects such as making high-quality data for AI available and investing in open-source tools. It is aiming for up to $2.5 billion in capital over five years.
Current AI founder Martin Tisné told Reuters a public-interest focus was necessary to avoid AI having downsides like social media has had. “We have to have learned the lessons,” he said.
Separately, France will announce private sector investments totaling some 109 billion euros ($113 billion) during the summit, Macron said on Sunday.
“The size of this 100 billion euro investment reassured us, in a way, that there’s going to be ambitious enough projects in France,” said Clem Delangue, the CEO of Hugging Face, a US company with French co-founders that is a hub for open-source AI online.
Risks
Not everyone in Paris agreed with taking a lighter-touch approach to AI regulation.
“What I worry about is that... there will be pressures from the US and elsewhere to weaken the EU’s AI Act and weaken those existing protections,” said Brian Chen, policy director at Data & Society, a US-based nonprofit.
Labour leaders expressed concerns on the impact of AI on workers, including what happens to workers whose jobs are taken over by AI and are pushed into new jobs.
“There is a risk of those jobs being much less paid and sometimes with much less protection,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, director-general of the International Labour Organization.
Top political leaders including China’s Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing are also attending the summit, as well as top executives such as Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and OpenAI’s Altman.
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Paris AI summit pits innovation ambitions against job loss fears
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Paris AI summit pits innovation ambitions against job loss fears
- “We should not be afraid of innovation,” Macron told regional French newspapers
- China’s DeepSeek challenged the United States’ AI leadership last month by freely distributing a human-like reasoning system
Russia, facing labor crunch worsened by war, pivots to India for workers
- Migrant labor crucial to Russia’s war economy
- Russia is employing fewer workers from Central Asia
MOSCOW: A group of weary-looking Indian men carrying sports bags queued at passport control at a busy Moscow airport one recent evening after flying over 2,700 miles — and via Uzbekistan — to get work.
“I have a contract for one year. In the rubbish disposal business. The money is good,” said Ajit, one of the men, speaking in English.
Faced with what the authorities say is an immediate shortage of at least 2.3 million workers, a shortfall exacerbated by the strain of Russia’s war in Ukraine and one that Russia’s traditional source of foreign labor — Central Asians — is not able to fill, Moscow is turning to a new supplier: India.
Indian influx helps Russia make up labor shortfall
In 2021, a year before Russia sent its troops into Ukraine, some 5,000 work permits were approved for Indian nationals. Last year, almost 72,000 permits were okayed for Indians — nearly a third of the total annual quota for migrant workers on visas.
“Currently, expatriate employees from India are the most popular,” said Alexei Filipenkov, director of a company that brings in Indian workers.
He said workers from ex-Soviet Central Asia, who do not need visas, had stopped coming in sufficient numbers. Official figures show they still made up the majority of some 2.3 million legal foreign workers not requiring a visa last year, however.
But a weaker ruble, tougher migration laws, and increasingly sharp anti-immigrant rhetoric from Russian politicians have eroded their numbers and encouraged Moscow to boost visa quotas for workers from elsewhere.
The choice of India for unskilled labor reflects strong defense and economic ties between Moscow and New Delhi.
India has been buying discounted Russian oil that Moscow — due to Western sanctions — cannot easily sell elsewhere, although that may now be in question.
President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a deal in December to make it easier for Indians to work in Russia. Denis Manturov, Russia’s first deputy prime minister, said at the time that Russia could accept an “unlimited number” of Indian workers.
At least 800,000 people were needed in manufacturing, and another 1.5 million in the service and construction sectors, he said.
Indians working in Russian factories and farms
Brera Intex, a Moscow textiles company, has hired around 10 workers from South Asia, including Indians, to make curtains and bed linen.
Sat at a sewing machine, 23-year-old Gaurav from India said he had been working in Russia for three months.
“I was told to come (over) to this side, that the work and money are good,” he said. “Russian life is very good.”
Married with two children, he said he spoke to his family back in India by phone every day and told them he missed them.
Olga Lugovskaya, the company’s owner, said the workers — with the help of samples and supervision — had picked up the work in time and were highly motivated.
“Some of the guys who came in didn’t even know how to switch on a sewing machine,” she said. “(But) after two or three months, you could already trust them to sew a proper finished item.”
Outside Moscow, the Sergiyevsky farm relies on Indian workers too, using them to process and pack vegetables for an average salary of about 50,000 rubles ($660) per month, a salary for which the farm says locals will not work.
“I have been working here, at Sergiyevsky, for one year,” said Sahil, 23, who said he was from India’s Punjab region.
“In India there is little money, but here there is a lot of money. The work is here.”
US pressure on India to halt its purchases of Russian oil — something President Donald Trump has linked to a trade deal between the United States and India announced this month — could yet dampen Moscow’s appetite for Indian workers.
But for now it’s unclear how New Delhi will recalibrate its oil purchases, and Moscow has played down any suggestion of tensions.
“I have a contract for one year. In the rubbish disposal business. The money is good,” said Ajit, one of the men, speaking in English.
Faced with what the authorities say is an immediate shortage of at least 2.3 million workers, a shortfall exacerbated by the strain of Russia’s war in Ukraine and one that Russia’s traditional source of foreign labor — Central Asians — is not able to fill, Moscow is turning to a new supplier: India.
Indian influx helps Russia make up labor shortfall
In 2021, a year before Russia sent its troops into Ukraine, some 5,000 work permits were approved for Indian nationals. Last year, almost 72,000 permits were okayed for Indians — nearly a third of the total annual quota for migrant workers on visas.
“Currently, expatriate employees from India are the most popular,” said Alexei Filipenkov, director of a company that brings in Indian workers.
He said workers from ex-Soviet Central Asia, who do not need visas, had stopped coming in sufficient numbers. Official figures show they still made up the majority of some 2.3 million legal foreign workers not requiring a visa last year, however.
But a weaker ruble, tougher migration laws, and increasingly sharp anti-immigrant rhetoric from Russian politicians have eroded their numbers and encouraged Moscow to boost visa quotas for workers from elsewhere.
The choice of India for unskilled labor reflects strong defense and economic ties between Moscow and New Delhi.
India has been buying discounted Russian oil that Moscow — due to Western sanctions — cannot easily sell elsewhere, although that may now be in question.
President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a deal in December to make it easier for Indians to work in Russia. Denis Manturov, Russia’s first deputy prime minister, said at the time that Russia could accept an “unlimited number” of Indian workers.
At least 800,000 people were needed in manufacturing, and another 1.5 million in the service and construction sectors, he said.
Indians working in Russian factories and farms
Brera Intex, a Moscow textiles company, has hired around 10 workers from South Asia, including Indians, to make curtains and bed linen.
Sat at a sewing machine, 23-year-old Gaurav from India said he had been working in Russia for three months.
“I was told to come (over) to this side, that the work and money are good,” he said. “Russian life is very good.”
Married with two children, he said he spoke to his family back in India by phone every day and told them he missed them.
Olga Lugovskaya, the company’s owner, said the workers — with the help of samples and supervision — had picked up the work in time and were highly motivated.
“Some of the guys who came in didn’t even know how to switch on a sewing machine,” she said. “(But) after two or three months, you could already trust them to sew a proper finished item.”
Outside Moscow, the Sergiyevsky farm relies on Indian workers too, using them to process and pack vegetables for an average salary of about 50,000 rubles ($660) per month, a salary for which the farm says locals will not work.
“I have been working here, at Sergiyevsky, for one year,” said Sahil, 23, who said he was from India’s Punjab region.
“In India there is little money, but here there is a lot of money. The work is here.”
US pressure on India to halt its purchases of Russian oil — something President Donald Trump has linked to a trade deal between the United States and India announced this month — could yet dampen Moscow’s appetite for Indian workers.
But for now it’s unclear how New Delhi will recalibrate its oil purchases, and Moscow has played down any suggestion of tensions.
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