Speaking at the Elysée Palace with technology industry leaders and politicians, the French president said this was a moment of “strategic awakening.”
advertisement“The city of lights will become the city of artificial intelligence,” President Emmanuel Macron told a gathering of tech elites, politicians and EU commissioners at the Elysée Palace on Tuesday.
The French president on Tuesday announced new investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum ecosystems, as well as training programs to develop tech talent.
He was speaking ahead of this week’s VivaTech technology trade show in Paris. The trade fair is expected to attract approximately 150,000 visitors over the four-day event.
“We need to go a step further, because for France and Europe, the battle over artificial intelligence is an existential battle, and our ability to create wealth depends on it,” Macron said. .
He said the new funding would be “substantial” and a quarter of it would come from the French government.
The AI ”battle” must be fought around “five main areas: talent, infrastructure, applications, investment and governance,” Macron said.
discussion at the cafe
Regarding human resources, 400 million euros will be invested in nine universities in a new program aimed at promoting AI research sites and developing human resources.
The French president also announced that training was key, setting a target of training between 40,000 and 100,000 people per year, and urging that more women should enter the field.
President Macron announced other measures to expand the public’s knowledge of technology, saying they should not be left behind. He said France’s independent advisory council, the Conseil National du numérique, would set aside a budget of 10 million euros to organize AI discussions and “cafés” across France.
Franco-German initiative
“The question facing France and Europe is whether we have decided on investment and support policies that will allow us to fully return to international competition.”
“We are living in a moment of strategic awakening that requires deep choices in research, training and investment,” he said.
Macron reiterated that this is a French and European AI mission, not a France-first one.
“Our goal is to Europeanize it [AI]And we will start with a Franco-German initiative,” he announced without elaboration.
