US, UK Reject Paris Declaration on ‘Inclusive and Sustainable’ AI

• World leaders are negotiating the text of a joint declaration at the Paris AI Summit.
• However, the U.S. has reportedly pushed back against language that references sustainability and inclusion.
• Without American involvement, the U.K. could also pull out of the declaration.

At previous AI summits in the U.K. and South Korea, participant governments negotiated joint declarations committing to shared goals and principles.

However, at this week’s Paris Summit, the first since Donald Trump entered the White House, American objection to a pledge to work toward “inclusive and sustainable AI” threatens to derail any formal declaration.

American Resistance to AI Declaration

Given Trump’s disdain for anything that might be perceived as threatening American sovereignty, getting the U.S. to enter even a non-binding international agreement on AI under his watch was always going to be a challenge.

Moreover, the Bletchley and Seoul declarations have already articulated the basic principles of AI safety. Therefore, any next step toward international consensus needs to be more concrete.

According to Politico , the U.S. delegation has pushed back against key aspects of the draft Paris Declaration, which reportedly includes a commitment to “inclusive and sustainable AI” and “making AI sustainable for people and the planet.”

U.K. May Follow U.S. Lead

Politico reported that the U.K. could also pull out, as the U.S. is likely to reject any diplomatic declaration that references sustainability or inclusion.

On Monday, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said that although “we’re engaging fully with the French,” who are leading negotiations, the U.S. is an “unignorable force.”

“When you see the trends in AI, it is that the trends are being set by the power of the technology itself, and America is adapting to those realities in the same way that we are,” he added.

According to people close to the negotiations, by mid-afternoon, with just hours to go before the summit’s end, neither the U.S. nor the U.K. looked likely to sign the declaration.

Diplomacy in the Age of Trump

The EU, the U.S., the U.K., Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore signed previous AI declarations.

However, without the participation of the U.S. and the U.K., the Paris Declaration risks losing much of its weight as an instrument for international policy-making.

Nevertheless, European leaders have used the Paris Summit to hint at a realignment of the international order in the Trump era.

During his address at the event, France’s President Emmanuel Macron suggested that the country’s nuclear and renewable energy resources would help it attract fresh AI investment.

Referencing Trump’s pro-oil inauguration speech, Macron said: “I have a good friend on the other side of the ocean saying ‘drill, baby, drill.’ Here, there is no need to drill. It’s plug, baby, plug. Electricity is available.”

Against this backdrop of transatlantic competition, it is clear that the emphasis on AI safety that characterized previous summits has waned.

As Vice President JD Vance put it at the event on Tuesday, “I’m not here this morning to talk about AI safety […] I’m here to talk about AI opportunity.”