How can we prevent the progress of artificial intelligence from being monopolized by a handful of actors? The question is burning, at the time of the Grand Summit on AI, whose diplomatic highlight will take place on February 10 and 11, in Paris. One of the responses, considers France, is perhaps in the creation of a foundation with an ethical dimension, “of general interest”. This has already been announced by the “special envoy” of the Elysée, Anne Bouverot, but it will only be formalized in the coming days. According to information from L’Express, the foundation will be baptized Current AI. It will initially receive a funding of $ 400 million. Some $ 2.5 billion, at a deadline that remains unknown, are hoped for.
The main patrons? The French State, alongside the Ford Foundation, that of Bill Gates, the MacArthur Foundation or the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, learned L’Express. Philanthropic structures, all American, recognized for their actions in favor of fundamental human rights, access to health, or even the fight against global warming. More surprising: the participation of two powerful tech companies made in USA, Google and Salesforce. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of the first, will be in Paris earlier this week. Google’s contribution in healthcare research could explain its presence. The sponsorship of Current ai by Salesforce, mastodonte of the management software, is to be found, on the other hand, on the side of his charismatic founder, Marc Benioff, famous in Silicon Valley for his philanthropic activities. Curious telescoping: Google and Salesforce recently praised the election of Donald Trump, whose values seem to the antipodes of this foundation dubbed by the Elysée.
The whole will be overseen by AI collaborative, a company that intends to help “to govern artificial intelligence on the basis of democratic values and principles”, informs its website. Martin Tisné, special envoy of “AI at the service of the public interest” of the Parisian summit, is responsible for it. AI collaborative is brooded by Omidyar Group, created by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of the e-commerce ebay site. The man, born in Iranian France of family, is now located in the United States. Like the majority of other investors, Omidyar stands out for its activities in philanthropy, with a fortune valued at more than $ 10 billion according to Forbes.
A strong “open source” accent
Current AI missions will first focus on creating high -value and relevant data sets at local level in key areas such as media, health care and education, “said a source. Among the strong issues: linguistic diversity, science and subjects of trust and security. In a recent interview with La Tribune on SundayAnne Bouverot had pleaded for the free provision of this data for researchers, and a “low price” sale for start-ups.
More broadly, Current AI put on “opening”, as confirmed by one of the participants in L’Express. Clearly, open source, on which France and Europe opt in a tactical way in the face of the closing strategy rather adopted by most of the major American actors in AI, such as Openai. The idea is to “promote open standards and tools that guarantee that AI technologies remain accessible, adaptable and inclusive”. Finally, the Foundation intends to provide a secure environment, by establishing “solid executives for transparency, audit.”
Current AI already has several official “supporters”. Hugging Face, the Franco-American “hub” of the open source. Pleias, a start-up supported by the Ministry of Culture, which builds open language models, respectful of copyright and energy efficient. Sakana Ai, the Japanese “mistral”, which shares comparable ambitions to the tricolor champion. Also in the game, the Norrsken Foundation, a Swedish NGO to combat poverty, famine and pollution, which has one of the most active investment funds in Europe on “impact”. States and governments should guarantee the initiative, during or after the summit.
Mensch, Delangue, Pérez, Simo…
A dozen “stars” of AI are also on the birth announcement. It is here, above all, that the “European” dimension of Current Ai is observed. France is obviously well represented, with Arthur Mensch (Mistral), Patrick Pérez (Kyutai), Éléonore Crespo (Pigment), Anastasia Stasenko (Pleias), Clement Delangue (Hugging Face) or Fiji Simo. The latter, spent at Facebook, directs Instacart, an American leader in racing delivery, and sits on the Openai board of directors. Precious. Beside them, Jonas Andrulis, a figure of the German start-up Aleph Alpha, and Brent Hoberman, British entrepreneur and creator of the Founders Forum Group. Reid Hoffman, the American founder of LinkedIn – “guru” of the notorious AI and anti -top – closes the march.
“The bases are solid,” says a participant in L’Express, but the initial bet may seem modest. To count in AI, the appropriate scale seems rather one billion. At this stage, Current AI does not, however, have the ambition to build major language models, nor to acquire latest generation fleas, two of the most expensive positions in artificial intelligence today. The summit intervenes moreover at a decisive moment: the Chinese start-up Deepseek opened the hope, at the end of January, that the AI race would not necessarily be played with green tickets.
.