Paris AI Action Summit: Inria and the Ministry of Science of Chile launch Binational Center on AI and announce 5 priority projects for 2025

On February 10 and 11, the city of Paris hosted the AI Action Summit, a global event where the main advances and challenges in the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) were discussed. The event brought together heads of state and government, representatives from the public sector and companies, startups, scientists, artists, civil society representatives, and international organizations. 

In November 2024, the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation of Chile and Inria signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement for the Creation of the Franco-Chilean Binational Center on Artificial Intelligence, in the presence of the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron. This bilateral agreement fully aligns with the objectives of the AI Action Summit, of which the Binational Center is a deliverable. On February 10, 2025, the launch of the Binational Center was held at the Embassy of Chile in France, where the Center and its priority actions for 2025 were presented to the Franco-Chilean AI ecosystem.

“The creation of the Franco-Chilean Binational Center on AI is a great opportunity for the scientific and technological development of our country. With its official presentation at the event at the Embassy of Chile in France, we are taking the first steps to create joint Franco-Chilean projects focused on security and evaluation in the use of AI; scaling models that allow sharing Chilean and French computing infrastructure; expanding AI research internship programs between both countries; and promoting collaborations in the dissemination of open-source AI. Chile's presence as part of the organizing committee at the AI Action Summit in Paris demonstrates that significant progress is being made in these areas with international collaboration”, stated Aisén Etcheverry, Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation of Chile.

“What we will do with the Binational Center is connect both AI ecosystems: the Chilean and the French. By doing this, we will scale everything we can do by increasing and scaling AI capabilities, which involve talent, computing infrastructure, software infrastructure, and the creation of robust and high-quality data corpus. We will work and collaborate with both ecosystems under the same shared vision of developing responsible and ethical AI for the common good”, highlighted Nayat Sánchez-Pi, Director of Inria Chile and Director of the Franco-Chilean Binational Center on AI.

The event, organized at the Embassy of Chile in France, brought together more than a hundred representatives from the artificial intelligence ecosystem, including representatives from the governments of Chile and France, through their Ministries of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation and Foreign Relations for Chile, and of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs for France. Representatives from other Latin American countries such as Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, represented by its Secretary of Government and Digital Transformation, César Vílchez Inga, also attended. Additionally, representatives from universities and research and innovation centers from both countries, scientists, representatives from large companies, startups, and students participated.

The event began with welcoming remarks from Raúl Fernández Daza, Chilean Ambassador to France; Aisén Etcheverry, Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation of Chile; Bruno Sportisse, Chairman and CEO of the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology, Inria; and Corinne Borel, Deputy Director General of Research and Innovation and Head of the Research and Innovation Strategy Service of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research of France. 

Prominent figures from the AI ecosystems of both countries shared their experiences and perspectives, reflecting on the development of new axes of cooperation in innovation and research in AI during the roundtable discussion “Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and opportunities for scientific and technological cooperation.”

The panel, moderated by Julio Pertuzé, professor at the School of Engineering of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, featured Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Chilean National Prize for Applied and Technological Sciences 2024, professor at the Universidad de Chile and CSO of Theodora; Serge Gratton, Scientific Director of the ANITI AI Cluster; Jacques Sainte-Marie, applied mathematician at Inria and the Sorbonne Université, responsible for the ICT and Environment program at Inria; and Nayat Sánchez-Pi, Director of Inria Chile and Director of the Franco-Chilean Binational Center on AI.

At the launch, Nayat Sánchez-Pi announced the five priority actions for the Binational Center for 2025:

• Creation of the first joint project on AI Evaluation and Security to develop methodologies, benchmarks, and tools for the reliability, robustness, cybersecurity, and transparency of AI systems, in association with the Institut National pour l’Évaluation et la Sécurité de l’Intelligence Artificielle (INESIA).

• Creation of the first joint project on Generative AI for low-resource languages focused on creating a high-quality data corpus to preserve cultural heritage and public services.  
• Scaling of a model to share computing infrastructure in collaboration with GENCI and the AI Factory France initiative, as well as open-source software infrastructure with Software Heritage.  
• Advanced talent training through the scaling of Inria Chile's existing research internship program to extend it to Chilean and French students in both countries, with a focus on AI.  
• Organization of the first Franco-Chilean AI Summit in 2025 in Chile, which will include the 9 recently created French AI clusters under France's National AI Strategy, along with the Chilean ecosystem.

The Grand Palais was the epicenter of the International Summit on February 10 and 11, and the OcéanIA project, led by Inria Chile, was presented near the main stage. After a process that included more than 770 applications from all over the world, the Summit organization and the Paris Peace Forum selected the project as one of the 50 global initiatives contributing to AI committed to the public interest, earning the opportunity to showcase its progress and achievements.

The Franco-Chilean initiative unravels the role of the Ocean in climate change through artificial intelligence. Today, a genuine AI toolkit, developed by the Franco-Chilean OcéanIA team comprising over 20 scientists, engineers, and students from 8 institutions in Chile and France, has achieved significant progress in understanding this role.

During the two days of the Summit, dozens of authorities, scientists, entrepreneurs, and representatives of international organizations were able to discover the project and the work of Inria Chile.

“It has been two intense days where we were able to present our OcéanIA project to the global AI ecosystem, as well as the work we do at Inria Chile and Inria in artificial intelligence. Being selected to present the project at the Summit has been both a recognition of the scientific relevance of the project and its commitment to AI for the common good”, explained Nayat Sánchez-Pi, the director of Inria Chile.

Inria Chile, together with the Chilean Ministry of Science and Inria, organized an official side event of the Summit at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, bringing together authorities and scientists in a roundtable discussion. In a packed room, the event “Franco-Chilean AI Center: Building Public Interest AI through International Cooperation” was moderated by Bruno Patino, President of the European cultural television channel ARTE France. The conversation was initiated by the Chilean Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation, Aisén Etcheverry, and the Chairman and CEO of Inria, Bruno Sportisse, who expressed their commitment to international cooperation in public interest AI.

Bruno Sportisse explained his vision for the Franco-Chilean Binational Center on AI: “What we try to build in this Franco-Chilean partnership is really in the spirit of the AI Action Summit. First, AI first is really beyond science and technology and it has a strong impact, a major impact on society. Second, it is very important to have science-based conversations at the international level and to have science-based public policies, because it is a fast-evolving landscape”. The importance of regional partnerships was also emphasized by Thibaut Kleiner from the European Commission, and the importance of AI development for science was highlighted by Guy Perrin, astronomer, member of the Académie des Sciences, and in charge of astronomy and space research at the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. Additionally, science and open-source code were highlighted by Roberto Di Cosmo, director of Software Heritage. Nayat Sánchez-Pi, director of Inria Chile and the Franco-Chilean Binational Center on AI, showed how all these axes will be fundamental and prioritized in the actions developed by the Center.

• "Franco-Chilean Center on AI: Building Public Interest AI Through International Cooperation", an official side event of the AI Action Summit
• AI Action Summit: the OcéanIA project is selected to be presented at the Summit in Paris
• The AI Action Summit kicks off in Paris, with several events organized by Inria Chile