U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his counterparts in Israel and Ukraine on Saturday as the U.S. government continues to support the two countries in their respective wars.

In speaking to Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, Austin reiterated U.S. support for Israel's right to defend itself while also pointing out the need to protect civilians and deliver humanitarian relief to people impacted by the war against Hamas terrorists.

Austin "reaffirmed Israel's right to self-defense and reiterated the importance of both protecting civilians and delivering humanitarian relief," Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a readout of the call. "He emphasized the need to contain the conflict to Gaza and avoid regional escalation."

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More than 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza and Israel since Hamas launched its largest attack against Israel in decades on Oct. 7, prompting a military response from Israeli forces. Thousands more have been wounded, and many others have been taken hostage by Hamas and raped, tortured and murdered.

The U.S. and the international community have been working to supply civilians in Gaza with humanitarian aid in the wake of the violence in the region. This included Egypt, Israel and the United Nations facilitating a 20-truck convoy carrying humanitarian assistance that was delivered to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing less than two weeks after the war began. Officials have since continued to work on delivering aid to Gaza.

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The secretary also separately spoke over the phone with Ukrainian Minister of Defence Rustem Umerov about Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion, which has been ongoing since February 2022. 

In the call with Umerov, Austin discussed the latest battlefield developments, security assistance priorities and plans for the next Ukraine Defense Contact Group scheduled for later in November, according to Ryder.

The two leaders pledged to remain in close contact, Ryder said.

European nations continue to jockey for leadership on artificial intelligence (AI), with Paris announcing it will host the next safety summit shortly after Britain hosted the first one. 

"The first edition of the Artificial Intelligence Security Summit, organized by the United Kingdom, provides an opportunity to develop international cooperation in the field of security, a crucial issue for the years to come. It was, therefore, natural for France to host the second edition of this summit," French Minister Delegate for the Digital Economy Jean-Noël Barrot said in a press release. 

The future of AI remains up for grabs, with many nations trying to position themselves at the forefront of the race. Britain most explicitly has made its intentions clear with multiple and escalating pledges of hundreds of millions of dollars dedicated to research and development. 

Barrot claimed that France is "a European leader" in AI development. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire noted several important initiatives, including AI ethics, that France has launched, as well as the country’s own €500 million (around $534 million) pledge towards supporting "global AI players."

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"Artificial intelligence is a tremendous lever for innovation and progress, and we want Europe to take full advantage of it," le Maire said in the same press release. "However, certain developments and uses of AI pose security risks, and international cooperation is the best way of dealing with them."

The first summit was held in Britain at Bletchley Park – the birthplace of the computing machine, known as the Enigma Machine, as part of Alan Turing’s research and work to decode Germany’s messages during World War II. 

The summit hosted world leaders and technology experts, including ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and social media platform X CEO Elon Musk, who launched his own AI model named "Grok," a seeming reference to Robert A. Heinlein’s science fiction novel "Stranger in a Strange Land."

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Britain spearheaded the Bletchley Declaration, which 28 countries including China and the U.S. signed: The agreement aims to provide a standard of safety and cooperation between participants to ensure AI tech does not become dangerous. 

Brussels hosted a one-day summit last week that sought to "find answers to many of the questions around global AI regulatory cooperation" following the Bletchley summit. 

"AI is a global challenge that doesn’t recognize borders," Ireland's Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Simon Coveney said during his keynote address at the International AI Summit 2023 organized by Euronews. 

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"The EU can’t do it alone," he stressed. "It must build an alliance and it must at least try to reach a global consensus."

Experts noted that the discussion and struggle for AI dominance rests currently in a split between the West and China, which has wanted "a seat at the AI table… for years," according to Rebecca Arcesati, a lead analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies. 

Matt Sheehan from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace theorized that "cooperation on AI is very much going to be shaped by the West's geopolitical relationship with China." 

France did not specify when the summit would occur, but leaders agreed to a follow-up summit during sideline discussions in Bletchley Park. Le Maire’s office stressed that they will remain in line with the overall European Union strategy for the governance of AI.