G7 Summit in French Alps Brings OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind Amid Protests

A working lunch at the G7 summit in the French Alps brought together the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind, as leaders faced protests and criticism over the summit’s agenda.

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The U.S. had ordered Anthropic days earlier to disable access to its most advanced AI models for foreign nationals, a national-security action that framed the companies’ presence at the summit.

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Truthout’s transcript of Democracy Now! said an estimated 20,000 people protested the G7 in Geneva, where one sign read, "Your enemies don't arrive by boat. They arrive by private jet. No G7!!!"

Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar described the summit as "a club of the super-rich super-elites," and the transcript said the G7 did not take substantive action on income inequality or climate change.

In Geneva ahead of the summit, a protest sign captured the criticism that the G7’s power travels privately, with the transcript quoting, "Your enemies don't arrive by boat. They arrive by private jet. No G7!!!"

Oxfam’s Amitabh Behar, speaking on Democracy Now! from New Delhi, said the G7 was "pretty much a club of the super-rich super-elites" and argued the outcome did not address the “fundamental question” facing the world.

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The transcript also tied the summit’s focus to humanitarian cuts, saying OECD countries contribute 23% less aid than they did in 2025 and that the U.S. has cut almost 60% of its aid.

In the same Democracy Now! transcript, Behar said, "So, you know, last year, we have seen almost $48 billion of all the aid getting cut," and linked those cuts to communities where “people are dying.”

Beyond the AI lunch, the G7 Environment meeting in Paris on April 23 and 24, 2026 was set to focus on biodiversity, oceans, and water pollution while climate and fossil fuels were not on the agenda, according to the report on France’s diplomatic approach.

“According to a Truthout transcript, the G7 summit in the French Alps included a working lunch attended by the CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind”

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The office of Monique Barbut, the Minister of Ecological Transition, said, "We have chosen not to address the climate question head-on, in light of the United States' well-known position on the subject," and the same source described the aim as preserving the G7’s unity.

Women 7 and related civil-society groups said gender and climate were a blind spot, with Reporterre quoting Mathilde Henry that "climate change is sexist," and arguing that the link between climate change and gender inequalities should be integrated into the G7 Environment discussions.

With the G7 heads of state summit scheduled for June 15 to 17 in Evian, the Women 7 engagement group said it had asked the French Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Élysée to give gender prominence, but France did not respond favorably to that request.