The AI Action Summit was an event that brought together world leaders, business experts and research luminaries as they uncovered the path ahead for the development of AI around the globe, and with the InstaDeep team being in the thick of the action throughout. Join us as we share some of the highlights below, and see some of the highlights here.
As “The Road to the Summit’ series of events came to a close, the AI Action Summit itself launched into life on 10 February, with guests from around the world gathering at the stunning Grand Palais, Paris to attend a packed schedule of events – and the InstaDeep team was at the center of events.
Our co-founder and CEO Karim Beguir was among the first on the scene, kicking off the conversation with a live appearance on, “Good Morning Business” with BFM Business, where he discussed InstaDeep’s latest work in decision-making AI, drug discovery, academic research, and support for open-source initiatives. Among the topics covered was the world’s need for compute infrastructure, with Karim sharing Africa’s huge potential to address this critical requirement for the future of a growing AI industry. Catch up on the live recording here.
Continuing the conversation about supporting Africa’s AI potential, the next event of the day saw Karim invited by Samira Gazzane to join a closed roundtable discussion on building resilient AI investment and innovation ecosystems in Africa organised by the World Economic Forum, The World Bank, and the Paris Peace Forum.
Meanwhile, members of our AI for Social Good team hosted our booth at the summit’s ‘Space for Solutions’ to share more about InstaGeo, our open-source geospatial AI tools that are helping to tackle locust swarms and protect food security. As one of the top 50 projects out of 770 submissions in the Paris Peace Forum’s ‘Call for AI Projects’, the team not only had the opportunity to connect with guests like Minister Thani Mohamed-Soilihi and Vilas Dhar, but also had their work highlighted in the summit’s Sustainable AI panel, introduced by Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Thanks to Project Syndicate for recognising our work for recognising our work, and catch up on the recording by clicking here.
Getting down to business
After an evening spent connecting with the summit’s attendees 11 February dawned, bringing with it an invitation for Karim to join the event’s plenary session alongside a select group of international figures including U.S. Vice President JD Vance, French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and musician-producer Pharrell Williams.
Across a series of speakers, the session touched on the challenges that need to be addressed so that AI can best support humanities goals and the environment, including the promotion of openness and inclusiveness, the development of an ongoing agenda for sustainability and the need for global AI governance. The location of the next AI Action Summit was also confirmed, with India volunteering to host the event. Watch a recording of the session here.
The AI Action Summit plenary session 
President Macron addressing attendees at the summit
11 February was also AI Business Day at the summit, with the InstaDeep team hosting a booth at ‘Station F’, France’s largest start-up incubator, where we connected with members of the tech ecosystem and the international economic players attending the summit to speak about our solutions, research and ongoing priorities for the development of AI. There, it was an honour to connect with Minister Sofiene Hemissi, Ambassador Dhia Khaled alongside a delegation from Tunisia including Omar Hedhli and Hichem Turki – thanks all for your continued support for our growth in France and around the world.
The Tunisian Delegation visits the InstaDeep booth, with a look at Karim’s manifesto 
The InstaDeep Team welcoming guests at our Business Day booth
We also had the opportunity to join the roundtable event, “AI-Powered Startups: Innovating for Impact in Africa” where we shared stories of our own activity, challenges and successes in the region. On-stage, Karim was joined by Moderator Ann-Marème Atayi, the CEO & Founder of Socium Samba Lo and the CPO & Co-Founder of Tum AI, Youcef Rahmani, where in a varied discussion, the panel spoke about the importance of thinking on a global scale, working with AI as a colleague during the AI agentic revolution and on choosing to work with businesses that are quickly adapting to the rapid rate of change that AI is creating.
The InstaGeo team were also invited to join the “AI for development: solutions for a sustainable and inclusive future” roundtable organized in partnership with the French agency for development (AFD) and Togo’s Ministry of Digital Economy. Presenting to the group, the team shared the solution and its potential for social good with a room of French and African geopolitical experts interested to learn AI’s potential in addressing global challenges.
Beyond the Grand Palais
The following day on 12 February, the InstaDeep team welcomed AI Action Summit guests to our Paris offices for a meet-up with the theme, “The Future of AI and its Implications for Europe & Partner Regions”. Hosting a panel with industry experts, speakers including Stéphane Fisch – Board Member at FluidStack, Charles Gorintin – Co-Founder & CTO at Alan and Alexandre Mirlesse – Advisor (cyber, AI, emerging technologies) plus moderator Louis Abraham (Adjunct Professor at Sciences Po) reflected on the highlights of the summit to date.
One of the top themes for debate was the importance of how energy infrastructure creation will impact the geopolitical balance of power in the future. Karim identified untapped potential in Africa for addressing these growing needs,
“Africa’s renewable energy potential—being close to Europe—represents an extraordinary opportunity for Europe to access even more electricity at an unbeatable price. Yet, today, no one is paying attention to this type of opportunity. Unlike oil and other scarce resources, electricity is set to become an abundant resource. The real opportunity today lies in the ability to harness it at a very large scale and low cost, and we must seize it now”.
Louis, Charles, Karim, Stéphane and Alexandre discuss the future of AI 
Karim addressing the crowd at our Paris offices
And there was still more to come, as InstaDeep’s Thomas Pierrot took to the stage for “Foundations and Advances in Generative AI” on 13 February, organized by the Machine Learning Department of Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. Speaking to an audience of expert scientists and researchers, Thomas discussed Multi-modal Foundation Models for Biology alongside the Nucleotide Transformer model plus our progress in AI-powered genomics, and his goals of one day building a “virtual cell”.
Over an extraordinary week of activity, we’ve had the opportunity to join conversations that have the potential to fundamentally change the future of AI, and the world, for the better. We’re grateful to all the event organisers, attendees and to our team in Paris for being helping to make the AI Action Summit an event with real impact, and one with lessons, learnings and opportunities that we’ll carry forward into our plans for the year ahead.
