Macron Defends EU AI Rules and Vows Crackdown on Child 'Digital Abuse'
French President Emmanuel Macron has robustly countered US criticism of Europe's efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, while making a firm commitment to safeguard children from what he termed "digital abuse" during France's presidency of the G7. Speaking at the AI Impact summit in Delhi, Macron called for enhanced protective measures in response to global outrage over Elon Musk's Grok chatbot, which was exploited to generate tens of thousands of sexualised images of children. This incident has amplified widespread concerns about the concentration of AI power among a small number of dominant companies.
Global Leaders Echo Concerns Over AI Safety
Macron's stance was strongly supported by António Guterres, the UN Secretary General, who addressed delegates, including several US tech billionaires, stating emphatically that "no child should be a test subject for unregulated AI." Guterres emphasised that "the future of AI cannot be decided by a few countries or left to the whims of a few billionaires," asserting that "AI must belong to everyone." Notably, Bill Gates, who had been scheduled to speak, withdrew at the last minute amid renewed scrutiny of his past associations with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
US Criticism and Macron's Rebuttal
On Wednesday, Sriram Krishnan, the White House's senior AI adviser, reiterated the Trump administration's criticisms of AI regulation, specifically targeting the EU's AI Act. He told delegates he would continue to "rant" against legislation that he deemed not "conducive to an entrepreneur who wants to build innovative technology." In response, Macron told the intergovernmental summit: "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."
Alarming Statistics on Child Exploitation
Recent research published by Unicef and Interpol across 11 countries revealed that at least 1.2 million children reported having their images manipulated into sexually explicit deepfakes in the past year. In some nations, one in 25 children – equivalent to one child in every classroom – had been affected. Macron declared: "There is no reason our children should be exposed online to what is legally forbidden in the real world. 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."
Tech Executives and Legal Challenges
Among the tech executives attending the summit was Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, which is currently facing a legal challenge from the family of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old who tragically took his own life after discussing suicide with ChatGPT. Dario Amodei, the co-chief executive of Anthropic, expressed concerns about "the autonomous behaviour of AI models, their potential for misuse by individuals and governments and their potential for economic displacement."
Modi's Vision for AI and Child Safety
India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, emphasised that it is "imperative that AI is child safe and family-guided," comparing the emergence of AI to the discovery of fire and describing it as a "profound transformation in human history." India is actively positioning itself as the world's third AI power behind the US and China, with Google recently announcing a $15 billion investment in datacentres and subsea cables linking India to the US and other countries. Modi stressed the need for "established levels of authenticity for content within the digital world ... people must know what is authentic, and what has been generated by AI."
Addressing AI Monopolies and Open-Source Advocacy
These interventions occur against a backdrop of increasing public anxiety about the societal risks of AI, as the most advanced models remain largely controlled by approximately four US companies and a handful of Chinese rivals. Modi outlined an alternative vision, leveraging India's 1.4 billion population as a vast growth market for tech firms. He stated: "We must prevent an AI monopoly. Many nations consider AI to be a strategic asset, and therefore it is developed confidentially and its availability is carefully managed. However, our nation India holds a different perspective. We believe that technology, like AI, will only truly benefit the world when it is shared and when open source code becomes available." His remarks seemed directed at the US, where leading AI models are not open-source and cannot be used or adapted without permission, in contrast to China's broadly open-source systems like DeepSeek and Qwen.
