The founding members of the AI Action Summit in Paris have launched a Public Interest AI Platform and Incubator aimed at bridging gaps between public and private efforts and reducing digital divides. The initiative was announced in a joint statement titled “Inclusive and Sustainable Artificial Intelligence for People and the Planet,” released on February 11 at the summit co-chaired by India and France.
The statement emphasizes the importance of promoting AI accessibility while ensuring trust and safety in its deployment. It highlights the need for a global effort to support, amplify, and decrease fragmentation among existing public and private initiatives focused on Public Interest AI. So far, 60 signatories have endorsed the initiative, which aims to sustain digital public goods and provide technical assistance in areas such as data, model development, transparency, audits, compute power, talent, financing, and collaboration to create a trustworthy AI ecosystem.
Discussions at the summit addressed various aspects of AI, including its impact on energy, the job market, and governance. Participants engaged in a first-of-its-kind multi-stakeholder discussion on AI and energy, sharing knowledge to foster investments in sustainable AI infrastructure, models, and hardware.
The discussions also welcomed an observatory on AI’s energy impact in collaboration with the International Energy Agency and showcased energy-efficient AI innovations.
The summit recognized the need for enhanced knowledge-sharing on AI’s influence in the job market, leading to the creation of a network of observatories to better anticipate its implications on workplaces, training, education, productivity, skill development, and working conditions.
The discussions also underscored the necessity of inclusive, multi-stakeholder cooperation on AI governance, integrating aspects of safety, sustainable development, innovation, international law, human rights, gender equality, linguistic diversity, consumer protection, and intellectual property rights.
Looking ahead, the summit identified key milestones in AI development, including the Kigali Summit, the third Global Forum on the Ethics of AI hosted by Thailand and UNESCO, the 2025 World AI Conference, and the AI for Good Global Summit 2025. The commitments made in Paris will be followed up in these upcoming events to ensure continued progress on sustainable and inclusive AI initiatives.
The Élysée Palace confirmed that 58 countries, along with the European Union and the African Union Commission, have signed the joint statement. Notable signatories include Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the Netherlands, the UAE, Ukraine, and the Vatican.
The summit outlined key priorities, including promoting AI accessibility to reduce digital divides, ensuring AI remains open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure, and trustworthy in line with international frameworks, fostering AI innovation while preventing market concentration, encouraging AI deployment that benefits labor markets and sustainable growth, and reinforcing international cooperation to coordinate AI governance.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to France from February 10-12, co-chaired the AI Action Summit with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Tuesday.
-ANI
