Paris (AFP) – Development of artificial intelligence (AI) should not be an unregulated “Wild West,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday ahead of a global summit on the technology in Paris. The call to impose rules—tempered with the pro-business president’s fundamental optimism about the technology—comes as France and Europe push to stay abreast of the AI race dominated by the US and China.
“AI can’t be the Wild West,” Macron told French regional newspapers including Ouest-France and Le Parisien in advance of the gathering of global political and tech industry leaders on Monday and Tuesday. “There have to be rules” and “there are all kinds of fields where we don’t want AI, because we don’t want it creating discrimination or mass control in our society,” he added. Macron nevertheless insisted that “we shouldn’t be afraid of innovation.”
There is “a risk that some people don’t set themselves any rules… but also the reverse, that Europe sets itself too many rules, parts ways with the others and therefore can’t innovate,” he warned. The French leader’s attempt to reconcile the two positions at the summit will be a “declaration open for any country to sign, on a completely voluntary basis, with strong principles on protecting rights, the environment, news integrity, and intellectual property,” Macron said.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is one of the highest-profile political leaders to attend the summit in Paris, alongside figures like US Vice President JD Vance and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing. The EU must be “ready to fight to be fully autonomous and independent, or will we let the competition shrink to a battle between the USA and China?” Macron said.
“If Europe takes an interest in this subject, simplifies and speeds up, it has cards to play,” he added. Macron called for “European and economic patriotism,” including buying locally developed AI services that he said promised boosts for the EU’s competitiveness and productivity. Von der Leyen is expected to announce plans to build around 10 public supercomputers for research and use by start-up firms, the president added.
© 2024 AFP
