Two years after the general public discovered Chatgpt, the conversational robot of the American company Openai, President Emmanuel Macron wishes to reaffirm the place of France on the world map of artificial intelligence. This is why it welcomes, this Monday, February 10, at the Grand Palais, the Paris Summit on this technology that must bring together political leaders and business leaders. Faced with increased competition from the United States and China, at the forefront in this sector, France and the EU want to play their score.
For this event organized by France and co-chaired by India, conferences and round tables highlighting the solutions allowed by AI are on the program of the first day. A plenary session will bring together, the next day, the heads of state and government as well as international personalities. Objective: to debate multiple questions relating to artificial intelligence, whether diplomatic, political, economic, ethical or even legal.
JD Vance, Narendra Modi, Sam Altman…
Among the politicians present, there will be, for example, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the vice-president of the United States JD Vance, the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Guoqing, the president of the European Commission Ursula von Der Leyen and the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. On the diplomatic level, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres or the president of the Commission of the African Union, Moussa Faki, will make the trip. In terms of business leaders, the founder of Mistral AI, the French nugget of the sector, Arthur Mensch, is expected, as is the manager of Openai, Sam Altman.
Beyond the enthusiasm it has been able to give rise to, AI also sometimes arouses reservations because of the potential threats that accompany it. Thus, this summit will be an opportunity to set the different challenges on the table: what jobs will it destroy? What personal data does it harm and where will they? Doesn’t artificial intelligence increase the risk of disinformation, online scams and other internet plagues? Doesn’t she dig cultural, economic or generational inequalities?
First ads
Upstream of the summit, first announcements have been made in recent days. Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday evening investments in France in the artificial intelligence of “109 billion euros in the coming years”. The executive had also revealed earlier than 35 “loans to employment” sites had been identified to accommodate data centers, these gigantic buildings designed in particular to allow training of AI models. In this race for data centers, the Canadian Brookfield Fund will invest 20 billion euros in France to build one in Cambrai (North), AFP learned from a source close to the file, confirming information from La Tribune on Sunday.
On Thursday, the French presidency had already indicated that the United Arab Emirates intended to build a giant data center in the country, for an investment between 30 and 50 billion euros, without revealing the location. France currently has more than 300 data centers, thus placing itself in sixth in the world of countries by welcoming the most, after the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and Canada, according to a report Social and Environmental Economic Council (EESC).
A foundation for the general interest
Faced with very ambitious private actors, the demand for regulation is strong. The French president promised, for the end of the summit, a declaration “with strong principles on the protection of rights, the environment, the integrity of information, intellectual property”. Among the other projects expected, “a plan with a dozen major public supercomputers dedicated to public research or open for European start-ups” should be unveiled by the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. These overpowered computers are crucial to train and operate AI models.
The summit must also lead to the creation of a foundation for the general interest, funded by private and public actors (governments, philanthropic organizations, companies, etc.), for which Paris hopes to raise 2.5 billion euros over five years . 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. First funding of $ 400 million is planned. Paris hopes to raise some 2.5 billion euros over five years.
DEEPSEEK unveiled its R1 conversational robot at the end of January, frugal but powerful, signing a resounding entry into the AI global landscape and leading to the fall in stock market valuations of several American behemoths. Faced with the Chinese shock wave and the strike power of the United States, which promised $ 500 billion in investments to develop infrastructure in AI, it is for France with this summit to prove its Credibility on the world scene of artificial intelligence. “We intend to assert the speech of France, the word of Europe, but also the word of all the other countries which are directly concerned,” said the Elysée Palace last Monday.