The AI Race: A Few Take-Away From the 2025 French AI Summit and the Need to Develop AI Policies

New developments in AI regulations are very much in the spotlight at the start of 2025. Not only did the provisions of the EU IA Act come into force on 2 February 2025, but France has also fulfilled its commitments made at the Seoul Summit by opening its national institute for AI security and co-chairing the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit with India on 10 and 11 February. These initiatives highlight the need to put in place strong AI policies to address the risks at stake and to be compliant both with EU laws and applicable national laws.

1. France has opened an AI safety institute called “INESIA”

On 31 January 2025, France opened a National Institute for the Evaluation and Security of Artificial Intelligence (INESIA), managed by the Secretary General for Defense and National Security as well as the General Directorate for Enterprises.

The opening of this institute follows commitments made by France at the Seoul Summit on AI, co-hosted by South Korea and the UK in May 2024. This virtual summit focused on consolidating global AI standards and governance, and reunited heads of State, international organizations (UN, OECD), experts and global business leaders (Google, Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, Samsung etc.).

As a result, Australia, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of Singapore, the UK and the US have adopted the Seoul Declaration to affirm their shared commitment to promoting international cooperation and sharing their best practices and evaluation datasets.

To this end, these territories agreed to create a network of national AI safety institutes to enhance international cooperation on AI risk management and increase global understanding in the realm of AI safety and security. Major tech companies also agreed on a set of voluntary safety commitments. France has thus joined the short list of countries with such institutes, which includes South Korea, the UK, Australia, Canada, the US and Japan.

Its Purpose? To analyze systemic risks in the field of national security, to support the implementation of AI regulations, and to assess the performance and reliability of AI models.

Its Mission? To centralize, without creating a new legal structure, the national assessment and security administrations, institutes and entities already existing in France. Thus, its purpose is not to become a regulator but rather to centralize existing expertise.

2. Investments announced at the Paris AI Action Summit and AI policy developments

To continue building momentum and consolidate international commitments through concrete measures, France hosted with India the AI Action Summit on 10 and 11 February 2025, the purpose of which was to strengthen international action in favor of AI serving the general interest.

The event brought together numerous heads of state and government, leaders of international organizations, small and large companies, representatives of the academic world, researchers, experts and other members of civil society.

They discussed the establishment of efficient and truly inclusive AI governance, the worldwide development of competitive and sustainable AI ecosystems, and the orientation of AI towards the public interest. The issue of AI’s environmental impact as well as the opportunities created by AI in health, education and labor sectors were also covered.

French President Emmanuel Macron made it clear that the summit was about understanding why it was interesting to choose France and the EU for AI. Indeed, the French government announced major planned investments to fuel the AI economy.

Emmanuel Macron thus announced that 109 billion euros would be invested in AI digital businesses and AI infrastructure in France by private companies over the next few years. 50 billion euros will cover a data center on an AI campus financed by the United Arab Emirates. This data center intended to be the largest AI Campus in Europe will be developed by a consortium of Franco-Emirati leaders. The remaining 59 billion euros will be used to develop several data centers and related infrastructures.

On 11 February 2025, the President of the European Commission launched the “InvestAI” initiative to mobilize €200 billions of investment in AI. This unique public-private partnership will include a new €20 billion European fund for AI gigafactories (infrastructures designed to support the development of large-scale AI models).

The EU will contribute €50 billion and almost all of the remaining €150 billion is expected to come from 20 major international financial actors, which have subordinated their participation to the EU’s commitment “to create a drastically simplified AI regulatory framework that unlocks local innovation and global leadership.”

France and the EU took advantage of the summit to assert their determination to stay in the AI race by attracting investors and committing to simplify the EU regulatory framework. While some see this as a reinforcement of EU sovereignty, others are concerned about the deregulatory path the EU would take in favor of popularity.

The question of AI regulation or deregulation and necessary investments are thus very hot topics at this moment.

In the wake of major AI investments coupled with shifting EU legislations, it is necessary for companies to adopt AI compliance policies which adapt to this shifting environment. Such policies should be built as international and global policies. They should seek to address the various risks involved in a broad manner so that the risk associated with the use of AI, deepfake generation, cybersecurity and data protection (on a non-exhaustive basis) can be covered in one or several policies adapted to one’s business.

This summary is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice nor does it create an attorney-client relationship with Rimon, P.C. or its affiliates.

Stephanie De Giovanni is an accomplished international and litigation attorney with over 20 years of experience practicing commercial law and complex commercial litigation. Ms. De Giovanni has a background in international distribution law and spent her early career focused on commercial agency and the setting-up of distribution networks. For the duration of her legal career, she has dealt with termination issues and the disputes arising therefrom. Read more here.