France wants AI
Jon Lester and Kelvin Chan, Associated Press – June 17, 2026 / 5:09 p.m. |Story: 620327
Photo: Canadian Press
French President Emmanuel Macron (right) greets President Donald Trump during the official arrival ceremony for the G7 Summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, Monday, June 15, 2026. (Isabelle Infantes, pool photo, via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke at a high-level meeting of AI executives on Wednesday, calling on the world’s wealthy democracies to help regulate advanced artificial intelligence systems.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, made a similar plea at the Group of Seven industrialized nations summit in France, saying an “international forum” is needed for countries to develop AI guardrails. He said the task of AI safety should not be left to technology companies.
Overshadowing the AI debate was President Donald Trump’s administration’s directive last week to ban foreigners from using Anthropic’s latest and most powerful artificial intelligence models.
Mr Macron said it was “a good thing” that US authorities recognized that so-called frontier AI models could be dangerous, but he also criticized it as a “very nationalistic” reaction.
The remarks followed a G7 working lunch on the theme of “Ensuring the Safe, Rapid and Effective Deployment of Artificial Intelligence” that brought together AI industry figures including the leaders of three of the most powerful AI companies, including CEOs Altman, Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei.
Trump’s feud with Anthropic has upset many people outside the US
Ahead of the meeting, a spat between the White House and Anthropic fueled European distrust of American dominance in the AI and technology ecosystem.
The company was forced on Friday to take its latest artificial intelligence models, known as Fable 5 and Mythos 5, offline to comply with the directive. The AI giant said it did not believe the measures taken by the government were justified due to concerns the government had warned about potential security issues.
Asked by reporters whether France and other G7 countries had asked President Trump to allow access to Anthropic’s latest AI models, Mr Macron said he had urged the US not to monopolize cutting-edge AI.
Macron warned that U.S. companies pioneering disruptive technologies could become less valuable if their access was cut off like a light switch. Mr Macron backed his call for cooperation between the major democracies with insurance. France will increase funding for its own AI industry to ensure it is not left behind if international cooperation breaks down, he said.
Macron said democracies ultimately want to prevent authoritarian regimes from accessing advanced AI systems.
“So let’s move forward together,” he said. “Relevant agencies must first work together to ensure smooth intergovernmental relations in the areas of security and cybersecurity.”
In a lunch address attended by G7 leaders and more than a dozen AI executives, Altman said the future of technology must be shaped by people, democratic institutions and society as a whole “not just by the companies building the most capable systems.”
“We need an international forum that establishes globally accepted testing standards, provides an impartial analysis of capabilities and risks by experts, and provides a forum for cooperation between countries,” he said.
Europeans seek checks on American AI dominance
Even before the “Humanity” episode, there was growing distrust of American companies that dominate the AI and other technology ecosystems. In Brussels, the European Commission this month unveiled a technology sovereignty package with plans to promote domestic AI, and in the Vatican last month, the Pope called for strong regulation of artificial intelligence.
Zach Myers, research director at Brussels-based think tank CERRE, said President Trump’s intervention in Anthropic highlighted how Europe, Canada and other countries “could be left in an extremely vulnerable position” if cut off from advanced AI models.
“There’s a general anxiety about the current state of Europe, the fact that we rely on other countries for very important strategic infrastructure, and a desire to do something about it, whatever that is,” Myers said.
Aidan Gomez, CEO of Canada’s Cohere AI, said at the G7 that “many proposals” were discussed for cooperation on AI governance and regulation.
“I think we all agreed that we needed something,” he told The Associated Press.
He told the gathering that democracies should focus their efforts on ensuring that the G7 produces “not just the most capable AI, but the second most capable AI,” a reference to the United States and China as the world’s only two major AI powers.
Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, also attended the conference, as did heads of smaller AI labs including France’s Mistral, Germany’s Black Forest Labs, Italy’s Domyn, Japan’s Sakana AI, and UK-based Synthesia.
The G7 consists of France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea were also among the guest countries invited to participate in some discussions.
