AI Execs Gather at G7 Summit           06/17 06:12

   

   (AP) -- Top artificial intelligence executives are gathering Wednesday in 
France against a backdrop of growing calls for tech sovereignty in Europe, 
fueled by concerns about American dominance in the industry.

   The wars in Iran and Ukraine have dominated discussions at the Group of 
Seven summit of major industrialized nations this week but AI will have its 
moment on the meeting's final day.

   In a rare huddle of AI industry figures, leaders of three of the most 
powerful AI companies -- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis 
Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei -- are due to attend a working lunch on 
the theme of "Ensuring a safe, rapid and effective deployment of artificial 
intelligence."

   Also attending are the heads of smaller AI labs, including Canada's Cohere 
AI, France's Mistral, Germany's Black Forest Labs, Italy's Domyn, Sakana AI of 
Japan and U.K.-based Synthesia.

   In Europe the distrust of American companies dominating AI and other tech 
ecosystems has shown up at the European Commission, which unveiled a tech 
sovereignty package this month with plans to boost homegrown AI, and the 
Vatican, where the pope last month called for robust regulation of artificial 
intelligence.

   Many outside the United States also took notice last week when Anthropic 
took down its most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, to comply with a 
Trump administration order citing an unspecified national security concern. The 
U.S government barred any non-Americans, either inside or outside the United 
States, from accessing the models, which forced the company to suspend access 
to all customers.

   The episode highlighted how Europe, Canada or other countries "can be put in 
an extremely vulnerable position" if they get cut off from advanced AI models, 
said Zach Meyers, director of research at CERRE, a Brussels-based think tank.

   "There is a general anxiety about the state of Europe, the fact that we're 
relying on other countries for quite important strategic infrastructure and a 
desire to do something about it, whatever that is," Meyers said.

   Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney touched on the Anthropic development on 
his way to the G7 meeting, telling reporters during a stop in Ireland that it 
highlights a need to "build out and diversify."

   Sovereignty requires "unhindered access to AI," he said in a speech in 
Dublin.

   Earlier this month, Canada announced a plan to help middle powers or 
like-minded countries develop an alternative to the big AI players. A few days 
earlier, Trump signed an executive order sketching out a framework for 
oversight of advanced AI systems.

   The G7 is a chance for business and political leaders to engage with each 
other on the risks and benefits of AI, as countries seek to harness the 
technology to boost their economies and advance their geopolitical aims.

   Digital sovereignty has been a longtime cause for the G7 meeting's host, 
French President Emmanuel Macron. His government has even started requiring 
civil servants to ditch Zoom and Microsoft Teams for a homegrown video 
conference system.

   Aidan Gomez, CEO of Cohere, which bought German AI startup Aleph Alpha 
earlier this year, said the company's focus at the G7 was "to expand our 
sovereign AI ecosystem partnerships beyond Canada and Germany to include all G7 
nations -- and companies -- establishing a global standard that guarantees 
ownership of models, data, and local compute."

   The G7 comprises France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan 
and the United Kingdom. Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea were among guest 
nations invited to participate in some discussions.