France brings AI chiefs into G7 talks on safety and governance
France will put Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Mistral AI executives at the G7 table in Evian, alongside talks on Ukraine, child safety online and AI rules.
France is pulling artificial intelligence chiefs into the diplomatic center of the G7, giving the leaders of Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Mistral AI a place near agenda-setting talks in Evian-les-Bains. The June 15 to 17 summit will put AI governance, online safety and economic strain on the same table as Ukraine, the Middle East and broader geopolitical tension.
The move reflects a widening power shift in global governance. French officials are not treating AI as a side issue or a courtesy meeting for industry; they are folding it into the main summit architecture, alongside a working lunch with tech business leaders on Wednesday to discuss regulation, AI infrastructure and networks. Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis and Dario Amodei are among the executives expected to attend, underscoring how closely governments now want to engage the people building the systems that can shape labor markets, information flows and national security.
Evian will also mark a return to the center of international attention, 23 years after the 2003 G8 summit there and seven years after the 2019 G7 meeting in Biarritz. France holds the 2026 G7 presidency, and the Élysée has framed the summit as a place to take up the world’s crises while also pressing a future-facing agenda on AI. The European Union will be represented by European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The online-safety track is already further along than the summit itself. On May 29, G7 digital and tech ministers agreed common principles for a safer and more secure digital space for minors, with the European Commission saying the principles include safety and privacy by design and age-appropriate protections. UNICEF called it the first time the world’s largest economies aligned behind a shared approach to online child safety. France’s education ministry has said the protection of minors online will feature prominently in Evian, building on G7 discussions in Trieste in 2024 and in Toyama and Kanazawa in 2023.
Security around the summit also highlights the overlap between digital policy and national security. France’s interior ministry has organized its planning around organized crime, terrorism and cybercrime, while French and Swiss authorities are preparing border restrictions and protests in the Geneva area. That atmosphere makes the case clear for French officials: AI governance is no longer an abstract ethics debate, but part of the same strategic brief as economic stability, public safety and state power.
If Evian produces even a loose common line on minors online, AI infrastructure or governance, France will have helped turn AI into a recurring G7 priority, not a one-off conversation.
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