French President Emmanuel Macron defended Europe’s approach to regulating artificial intelligence, vowing to protect children from “digital abuse” as the country holds the G7 presidency. The remarks came in response to criticism from the United States regarding European efforts to regulate AI.
Macron Defends AI Regulation at Delhi Summit
Speaking at the AI Impact summit in Delhi, Macron called for stronger safeguards following global outrage over the use of Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot to generate tens of thousands of sexualized images of children, and amid increasing concerns about the concentration of AI power within a limited number of companies.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres echoed Macron’s sentiments, telling delegates – including several US tech billionaires – that “no child should be a test subject for unregulated AI.”
“The future of AI cannot be decided by a few countries or left to the whims of a few billionaires,” Guterres said. “AI must belong to everyone.”
Bill Gates had been scheduled to speak at the summit but withdrew at the last minute amid renewed scrutiny of his past links to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Awkward Display of Unity and US Criticism
An attempt by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demonstrate unity among leading tech billionaires was disrupted when OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei declined to hold hands on stage with other tech executives, including leaders from Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
The White House’s senior AI adviser, Sriram Krishnan, renewed criticism of AI regulation, specifically targeting the EU’s AI Act, stating he would continue to “rant” against legislation not “conducive to an entrepreneur who wants to build innovative technology.”
Macron countered, stating, “Opposite to what some misinformed friends have been saying, Europe is not blindly focused on regulation. Europe is a space for innovation and investment, but it is a safe space, and safe spaces win in the long run.”
Recent research published by Unicef and Interpol across 11 countries revealed at least 1.2 million children reported having their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes in the past year, with one in 25 children affected in some countries.
“There is no reason our children should be exposed online to what is legally forbidden in the real world,” Macron said. “Our platforms, governments and regulators should be working together to make the internet and social media a safe space. This is why, in France, we are embarking on a process to ban social networks for children under 15 years old.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, also in attendance, faces a legal challenge from the family of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old who died by suicide after discussing it with ChatGPT.
Altman told delegates that by 2028, “more of the world’s intellectual capacity could reside inside of datacentres than outside of them.” He also stressed the urgent need for “regulation or safeguards” and proposed creating an international body similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency to oversee AI coordination.
Dario Amodei, co-chief executive of Anthropic, expressed concern about the autonomous behavior of AI models, their potential for misuse, and their potential for economic disruption.
India’s AI Ambitions
Modi emphasized the need for AI to be “child safe and family-guided,” describing the emergence of AI as a “profound transformation in human history.”
India is seeking to establish itself as the world’s third AI power, behind the US and China, with Google announcing a $15 billion investment in datacentres and subsea cables connecting India to the US and other countries.
Modi stated that AI should be shared and open-source, contrasting with the US approach where leading AI models are not open-source. China’s leading systems, such as DeepSeek and Qwen, are broadly open-source.
Modi also called for established levels of authenticity for content within the digital world, stating, “people must know what is authentic, and what has been generated by AI.”
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