Paris AI Summit: PM Modi, JD Vance, and Sam Altman join global leaders – What’s at stake for India?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to depart for France today to co-chair the AI Action Summit alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. The two-day event, hosted at the Grand Palais in Paris, will bring together over 1,500 attendees, including more than 100 global leaders.

Why Is the Paris AI Summit Important?

The summit comes at a critical juncture, as the global AI race intensifies between the West and China. China’s DeepSeek AI, a cost-effective competitor to ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude, is challenging the dominance of U.S.-led AI technologies. Against this backdrop, the Paris AI Summit serves as a strategic platform for world leaders to discuss AI governance, ethical frameworks, and investment strategies.

President Macron has positioned the summit as a moment for Europe and India to assert their influence in the AI revolution. He also announced a €109 million investment in AI projects in France, drawing parallels with the U.S. Stargate Project.

“The first battle for Europeans is to invest, invest, invest… If we regulate before we innovate, we won’t have any innovation, and people will say, ‘We have great regulation in Europe, but we don’t have a single player,’” Macron told Bloomberg.

Who’s Attending the Summit?

The event will feature a high-profile guest list, including:

Chinese Vice Premier Zhang

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

UN Secretary-General António Guterres

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, marking his first international trip since the Trump administration took office on January 20.

Top tech leaders will also take the stage, including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft President Brad Smith, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. While Elon Musk (xAI) and DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng have been invited, it remains uncertain if they will attend.

Key Outcomes to Watch

The first AI summit held in the UK in 2023 resulted in a non-binding 28-page agreement addressing AI-related risks. A subsequent summit in South Korea pledged to create a network of public AI safety institutes to support research and testing.

The Paris summit is expected to go further by pushing for binding commitments on ethical, democratic, and environmentally sustainable AI development. As Macron put it, “AI cannot be the Wild West.”

What’s India’s Position?

PM Modi is expected to advocate for open-source AI models, favoring platforms like France’s Mistral AI, the U.S.’s Meta AI, and China’s DeepSeek over proprietary models from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

India’s IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently praised DeepSeek for offering an alternative to dominant Western AI models. He indicated that India could soon host DeepSeek AI on its own servers, enhancing privacy protections.

“DeepSeek is open source; we will host it on Indian servers soon… Like LLaMA (Meta’s LLM), this too can be hosted on Indian servers,” Vaishnaw stated.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri emphasized the importance of India’s participation: “AI is already having a profound impact across all sectors—economy, society, and governance. Summits like the AI Action Summit are both significant and timely.”

What’s at Stake for India?

India’s presence at the Paris AI Summit signals its growing influence in the global AI landscape. By advocating for open-source AI, India is positioning itself as a leader in democratized AI access while ensuring data sovereignty and innovation. As AI continues to reshape industries worldwide, India’s stance at this summit could shape future AI regulations, investments, and collaborations on a global scale.