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 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 鈥� OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei 鈥� are due to attend a working lunch on the theme of 鈥淓nsuring a safe, rapid and effective deployment of artificial intelligence.鈥�
Also attending are the heads of smaller AI labs, including Canada鈥檚 Cohere AI, France鈥檚 Mistral, Germany鈥檚 Black Forest Labs, Italy鈥檚 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 this month with plans to boost homegrown AI, and the Vatican, where last month called for robust regulation of artificial intelligence.
Many outside the United States also took notice last week when 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 鈥渃an be put in an extremely vulnerable position鈥� if they get cut off from advanced AI models, said Zach Meyers, director of research at CERRE, a Brussels-based think tank.
鈥淭here is a general anxiety about the state of Europe, the fact that we鈥檙e relying on other countries for quite important strategic infrastructure and a desire to do something about it, whatever that is,鈥� Meyers said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney touched on the Anthropic development on his way to the G7 meeting, during a stop in Ireland that it highlights a need to 鈥渂uild out and diversify.鈥�
Sovereignty requires 鈥渦nhindered access to AI,鈥� he said in a speech in Dublin.
Earlier this month, Canada announced to help middle powers or like-minded countries develop an alternative to the big AI players. A few days earlier, Trump signed an 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 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 鈥渢o expand our sovereign AI ecosystem partnerships beyond Canada and Germany to include all G7 nations 鈥� and companies 鈥� establishing a global standard that guarantees ownership of models, data, and local compute.鈥�
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.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
