France aims to become global AI leader with backing from U.S. Big Tech

PARIS – France is touting itself as the following synthetic intelligence superpower.

The Viva Expertise convention in Paris final week was buzzing with speak about how far France has come as a frontrunner in AI.

There was a whole lot of discuss surrounding French AI firm H, previously referred to as Holistic, which raised $220 million in a seed funding spherical from buyers together with US tech big Amazon and Google’s billionaire ex-CEO Eric Schmidt.

A typical theme for French AI corporations receiving massive sums of cash is that they’re including US tech heavyweights to their shareholder lists.

Earlier this month, France acquired a flood of latest non-public funding, led by a 4 billion euro ($4.4 billion) dedication from Microsoft, the biggest ever in France.

At Viva Tech, AI was all over the place. Previous the massive, brilliant pink ‘VIVA’ signal out entrance, there was a complete alley referred to as ‘AI Avenue’, surrounded by US tech corporations like Salesforce and AWS.

Generative AI was all over the place – even from corporations you would not count on.

For instance, French magnificence big L’Oreal showcased an AI-powered magnificence assistant referred to as “BeautyGenius” on a big sales space close to the middle of the Porte de Versailles convention venue.

Viva Tech’s success has develop into symbolically necessary for France as a part of its bid to develop into a number one know-how and AI hub to rival these of the US and China.

“France is the chief in synthetic intelligence in Europe,” Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, instructed CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal on Viva Tech final week.

He made it clear that whereas France is getting a serving to hand from American tech giants, “we wish our personal synthetic intelligence to be created and developed in France.”

Referring to Microsoft’s funding in France, Le Maire mentioned: “Microsoft could be very welcome in our nation. However the problem for us is to have our personal units, our personal scientists… and we’re working very onerous for that.”

France has a powerful AI analysis and growth ecosystem, with key services comparable to Meta’s Fb AI Analysis middle and Google’s AI Analysis Heart in Paris, in addition to main universities.

“France is among the most vibrant innovation facilities in Europe,” Etienne Grass, France director of Capgemini Invent, Capgemini’s digital innovation arm, instructed CNBC. “The nation is fostering a thriving startup scene, marked by important advances in AI,” Grass added.

Imran Ghory, associate at Blossom Capital, mentioned that whereas France has an awesome monitor document on the subject of analysis and academia, it has struggled to draw high quality expertise to “huge corporations”.

AI labs from Meta and Google have created “a coaching floor for college kids and researchers to learn the way main tech corporations look and work from the within,” Ghory mentioned.

“We at the moment are seeing the fruits of this as many researchers and AI engineers start to arrange their very own corporations.”

French President Emmanuel Macron instructed CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin in an interview final week that his nation is “the chief within the know-how business in Europe.” Nonetheless, he famous that Europe is “lagging behind” the US and that the continent wants extra “huge gamers”.

“It’s insane to have a world the place the massive giants solely come from China and the US,” Macron mentioned on the Elysee Palace. He praised Mistral, the French AI firm backed by US tech big Microsoft, and H.

Final week, Macron met with Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, and James Manyika, Google’s senior vice chairman of know-how and society, amongst others on the Elysee to debate methods to Paris a world AI hub.

Maurice Levy, CEO of promoting and PR big Publicis Groupe, instructed CNBC’s Karen Tso that he thinks France has the potential to develop into a prime 5 nation for AI growth. Levy mentioned France is “decided” to slender the hole between the US, China and Europe on the subject of AI.

France “might be a part of the highest 5 international locations on the planet in AI,” after the US, China, Israel and Britain, Levy mentioned in a TV interview final week. He pointed to H’s large funding spherical for instance of the momentum surrounding French AI proper now.

Levy mentioned about 40% of tech demos on Viva Tech had been AI. AI is “one thing that’s not simply taking off, however has already taken off,” he mentioned.

In a fireplace dialogue final week, Google’s Manyika mentioned that a lot of the innovation the corporate has dropped at the desk comes from engineers in France.

He mentioned Google’s not too long ago launched Gemma AI, a light-weight, open-source mannequin, was closely developed on the US web big’s AI hub in Paris.

In line with knowledge from Dealroom, France claimed a roughly 20% share of complete European funding for AI startups in 2023, greater than the common of 15% of European funding going to AI startups throughout the bloc.

Nonetheless, France isn’t the European AI chief, in accordance with Dealroom, with UK corporations elevating greater than double the quantity of each AI and GenAI funding than France.

France’s Macron mentioned the problem for Europe is to speed up analysis and growth in AI, whereas additionally making certain regulation on an “acceptable scale”.

Final week, the EU handed the AI ​​Act, a groundbreaking legislation regulating synthetic intelligence.

Some know-how executives warned that Europe may hamper its AI ambitions with overly restrictive rules. France is among the many international locations which have criticized the EU AI Act for being too restrictive on the subject of innovation.

Pascal Brier, Chief Innovation Officer of Capgemini, mentioned that whereas regulation is critical to make sure AI doesn’t develop into too highly effective, you will need to make sure that new legal guidelines such because the AI ​​Act don’t inadvertently ‘kill’ innovation.

He mentioned regulators ought to keep away from the “precautionary precept” – the concept AI makers ought to usually keep away from doing issues that might trigger hurt.

“There is not any approach you’ll be able to cease AI – it is simply the top of the start,” Brier instructed CNBC. “It will not cease there.”