Silicon Valley chiefs discuss gigawatts & guardrails at G7

Over a dozen executives from the world's leading artificial intelligence (AI) and technology companies gathered at the G7 Summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, as global leaders debated how to balance AI innovation, safety and strategic independence.

Here’s everything you need to know about what was discussed at Wednesday’s working lunch among tech executives and global leaders.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman called for the creation of an international forum to govern AI, arguing that AI safety and oversight should not be left solely to tech companies. He warned that governments have limited time to establish guardrails for increasingly powerful AI systems and said international cooperation will be essential as technology reshapes economies.


Meanwhile, London-based Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis warned that the world may have only one to five years to put effective safeguards in place before AI systems potentially surpass human intelligence in key domains, according to a CNBC report. Hassabis backed the idea of a US-led international coalition to develop common standards and ensure AI advances safely while preserving innovation.

Among the most closely watched attendees was Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, whose company recently restricted foreign access to its most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, following a US government order. Amodei echoed concerns about the rapid pace of AI progress, arguing that frontier AI models could pose significant security and societal risks if not properly governed. Per CNBC, Amodei also urged countries to cooperate on ‘structured access to advanced AI models’, semiconductor supply chains and safeguards against risks in areas such as cyberattacks, bioterrorism and intelligence. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney backed the idea of US leadership in global AI governance.

The attendees included Alexandr Wang, who is leading AI efforts at Meta; Salesforce’s Marc Benioff; Arthur Mensch of French AI startup Mistral; Canadian AI startup Cohere AI’s Aidan Gomez; and Vivek Raghavan, representing India's AI startup Sarvam.

The G7 leaders also discussed a ‘trusted partners’ framework during the session that would allow non-US countries to access advanced AI systems from various American companies like Anthropic while coordinating more closely on the opportunities and risks of frontier AI.

“Important G7 session on AI. AI is developing exponentially. It is the most important technology of our time. It comes with immense potential, but also risks for free, democratic societies. I believe Europe and the US should work together on AI. Together, we represent 70% of the world market. We have complementary strengths, shared security interests, and a common responsibility to lead. So we should deepen our cooperation. Invest together. Accelerate adoption everywhere, from industry to healthcare. And ensure that the most powerful models are trustworthy and safe,” wrote European Union Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen in a post on X.

French president Emmanuel Macron added that progress could be made in the coming weeks on expanding access to leading US AI models, according to a Reuters report.