The two companies are joining forces again in France. Sunday February 11, the digital giant Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) and the French professional training company Simplon announced a new partnership for the general French public: free and easy introductions to generative artificial intelligence (AI). accessible to anyone.
After their “metaverse academy” in 2022, the two companies are this time tackling this technology for automatically generating text, images, sound or video, like conversational AI ChatGPT (OpenAI) . Thus, this new project plans to organize half-day workshops in eight French cities (Marseille, Lyon, Paris, Lille, Nantes, Rennes, Montpellier and Bordeaux), without prerequisites, in order to learn the basics of these tools. The training would also be broadcast online in real time.
Concretely, the initiation will be focused around three points: a theoretical explanation of generative AI and existing tools, familiarization with the different models, and awareness of the limits and biases induced by this technology. Meta also promises that the AI used in the workshops will be varied and will not be limited to the models designed by its teams. An important announcement if we rely on the figures which show that many professional sectors will be impacted by this technology in the years to come.
An initiative financed in part by Meta for an unknown amount, in a desire to “make the French aware of this technological breakthrough”, according to its vice-president for the Southern Europe region, Laurent Solly. Generative AI indeed marks an upheaval in the world of work: in France, 800,000 jobs would be highly exposed to the risks of automation of their tasks, according to a study by the consulting firm Roland Berger published in November.