Addressing the Artificial Action Summit in Paris on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is co-chairing the event with France’s President Emmanuel Macron, warned the gathering of major global leaders about the dangers of unchecked biases in AI technology.
Modi said “while the positive potential of AI is absolutely amazing, there are many biases that we need to think carefully about” it.
He said, “We are at the dawn of an AI age that will save the course of humanity. Some people worry about machines being superior in intelligence to humans but no one holds the key to our collective future and shares destiny other than us humans. That sense of responsibility must guide us.”
PM Modi said, “AI is developing at an unprecedented scale and speed and being adapted and deployed even faster. There is also a deep interdependence across borders. Therefore, there is a need for collective global efforts to establish governance and standards that upload our shared values, address risks, and build trust.
But governance is not just about managing rifts and rivalries. It is also about promoting innovation and deploying it for the global good. So we must think deeply and discuss openly about innovation and governance.”
The Artificial Action Summit began on Monday but Tuesday’s parleys are the key focus for a global AI framework.
Top world leaders are in a huddle for the AI summit at a time when tech titans are fighting for dominance in the fast-moving technology industry. Hectic and challenging diplomatic talks are expected at the AI summit before a final declaration is adopted.
Heads of state, top government officials, CEOs and scientists from around 100 countries are participating in the two-day international summit from Monday.
Other high-profile attendees include US Vice President JD Vance, on his first overseas trip since taking office, and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.
Prime Minister Modi arrived in Paris on Monday night and was welcomed with a hug by French President Macron at a welcome dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
“Delighted to meet my friend, President Macron in Paris,” Modi posted on X on Monday.
During his three-day visit to France, Modi will hold bilateral talks with Macron, and address business leaders.
Modi received a grand diaspora welcome as he landed in Paris. “A memorable welcome in Paris! The cold weather didn’t deter the Indian community from showing their affection this evening. Grateful to our diaspora and proud of them for their accomplishments,” he said.
Modi and Macron will also hold discussions in both restricted and delegation formats and address the India-France CEO’s Forum.
In his departure statement, the prime minister said that the bilateral segment of his visit will provide an opportunity to review the progress on the 2047 Horizon Roadmap for India-France strategic partnership along with “my friend” President Macron.
On Wednesday, the two leaders will visit Mazargues War Cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Marseille, to pay tribute to the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers in World War I.
They will inaugurate the newest Consulate General of India in Marseille. This is Modi’s sixth visit to France.
At the dinner, Modi also met Vance. The meeting marked Modi’s first interaction with the top leadership of the Trump administration ahead of his upcoming visit to the US. During their conversation, Modi congratulated Vance on his electoral victory.
“Congratulations. Great, great victory,” he said while shaking hands with the US Vice President.
“PM @narendramodi interacts with President @EmmanuelMacron and USA @VP @JDVance
in Paris,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a post on X.
Modi arrived in Paris for the first leg of his two-nation tour that will later take him to the US.
Ahead of the AI summit, Macron told France’s national television, France 2, “We’re living a technology and scientific revolution we’ve rarely seen.”
France and Europe must seize the opportunity because AI “will enable us to live better, learn better, work better, care better and it’s up to us to put this artificial intelligence at the service of human beings”, he said.
The summit gives European leaders a chance to meet Vance for the first time. The 40-year-old vice president was just 18 months into his time as Ohio’s junior senator when Donald Trump picked him as his running mate.
Vance was joined by his wife Usha and their three children — Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel — for the trip to Europe. They were greeted in France on Monday morning by Manuel Valls, the minister for Overseas France, and the US Embassy’s charge d’affaires, David McCawley.
Before the trip, Vance made it clear that he intended to use the opportunity for frank discussions with European allies.
“At the AI Summit, the main reason I’m going is actually to have some private conversations with the world leaders who are also going to be there,” Vance told Breitbart News.
“I think there’s a lot that some of the leaders who are present at the AI summit could do to, frankly — bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a close, help us diplomatically there — and so we’re going to be focused on those meetings in France.”
After the AI summit, Vance will have a working lunch with Macron on Tuesday. Russia-Ukraine war and Israel-Hamas ceasefire along with US President Donald Trump’s ‘clean-up’ Gaza plan. Vance, besides Trump, has questioned US spending on Ukraine and the broader approach to isolating Russian President Vladimir Putin. Within six months of taking office, Trump promised to end the fighting.
Vance also addressed what he views as a concerning trend in Europe regarding free speech, a topic he raised last year during his attendance at the Munich Security Conference.
“Unfortunately, you’ve seen in Europe a really significant, and I think, frankly, an evil trend towards censorship,” he said.
“And you hear a lot about America’s moral leadership. One of the things that America’s moral leadership is going to be about during President Trump’s term is free speech. We want people to be able to speak their minds, and we believe that free and open debate is actually a good thing. Unfortunately, a lot of our European friends have gone the wrong direction there.”
Later this week, Vance will attend the Munich Security Conference again, where he may meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He plans to revisit themes he raised last year, including the need for Nato allies to take on a greater share of responsibility.
Leaders in Europe have been carefully watching Trump’s recent statements on threats to impose tariffs on the European Union, take control of Greenland and his suggestion that Palestinians clear out of Gaza once the fighting in the Israel-Hamas conflict ends — an idea that’s been flatly rejected by Arab allies.
The summit gathers major players such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI alongside major political leaders, aiming to foster AI advances in sectors such as health, education, environment and culture.
A global public-private partnership named “Current AI” will be launched to support large-scale initiatives that serve the general interest.
The Paris summit “is the first time we’ll have had such a broad international discussion in one place on the future of AI”, said Linda Griffin, vice president of public policy at Mozilla.
“I see it as a norm-setting moment.” Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group, noted an opportunity to shape AI governance in a new direction by “moving away from this concentration of power amongst a handful of private actors and building this public interest AI instead”.
It remains unclear if the United States will support such initiatives. Following the US’s ambivalence, reports suggested the UK too may not sign the final declaration at the AI summit.
“There’s a lot of complicated questions to resolve” around issues like the ability to control AI systems, Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis, founder of Google’s DeepMind research lab, said.
“But also I think even more complicated are maybe the geopolitical questions about things like regulation.” French organisers are also looking for the summit to ignite major investment announcements in Europe, positioning the region as a viable contender in an industry increasingly shaped by a growing US-China rivalry.
France plans to announce AI private investments worth a total of $113 billion over the coming years, Macron said, presenting it as “the equivalent” of Trump’s Stargate AI data centres project.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun expressed opposition Monday to any moves to restrict access to AI tools. The release of DeepSeek has prompted calls in the US Congress to limit its use for security reasons.
“We oppose drawing ideological lines and oppose overstretching national security concepts and politicising economic and trade issues,” Guo said.
He said that China advocates for open-source AI technology and promotes the accessibility of AI services to share the benefits of artificial intelligence with all countries.
Modi is co-hosting the summit with Macron in an effort to involve more global actors in AI development and prevent the sector from becoming a US-China battle. Modi has favoured a consensus to have a common global approach to deal with a technological disruption like AI.
India’s foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, stressed the need for equitable access to AI to avoid “perpetuating a digital divide that is already existing across the world”.
Macron will also travel on Wednesday with Modi to the southern French port city of Marseille to inaugurate an Indian Consulate there and visit the ITER nuclear research site.
France has become a key defense partner for India, with talks underway on New Delhi purchasing 26 Rafale fighter jets and three Scorpene submarines. Officials in India said that discussions are at the final phase and the deal could be inked in a few weeks.
(With inputs from AP and PTI)
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‘Need to be careful about biases in AI’: Modi at Paris artificial intelligence summit
