Strategy on artificial intelligence: human intelligence and attraction of the best researchers

It's by betting on "human intelligence and the attraction of the best researchers" that Emmanuel Macron gave a speech entitled "artificial intelligence at the service of Humans" at the Collège de France on March 30 to present the strategy designed to turn France into a major player of the artificial intelligence (AI) field. The French government will spend €1.5 billion over five years and €500 million in private funding.

A strategy coordinated by the INRIA

"The excellence of our research will be the source of our next industrial champions". This is the stake on which the French strategy relies, coordinated by the INRIA (National Research Institute for Computer Science and Automatism) in cooperation with additional partner research entities and universities with the objective to double training in AI. And as the president underlines, "We must particularly focus on training". The first challenge of artificial intelligence on a global scale is talent. We are attractive through our excellence because we are cheaper than many others, but the risk is to face a dry pool earlier."

About the place of France in the battle of artificial intelligence, the President reminded that "we have the assets to succeed in artificial intelligence, we have the assets because we already have talents, we have excellence in training, in computer science and in mathematics".

The plan will involve all of the scientific and university community, rely on a network of dedicated institutes present in four/five places in France to form a research hub at the best of international level.

A program of individual chairs

"To hold its rank, France will need to shine at the international level". This is why a program of individual chairs will be added to the strategic means to attract more foreign researchers.

In this regard, the French president announced the "implementation of a series of call for projects designed as Make our planet great again, which helped select the best global projects and differentially fund the best research in the industry and thus attract the best teachers, teachers-researchers for a period of their career or a year, attract the best research project through these selections to turn France into a place for attractiveness and international competitiveness in the industry".

Beside the technical aspect, and in line with the report provided by mathematician Cédric Villani, the French president also defined additional general objectives for the development of AI: in addition to the development of research, it will be necessary to think about open data, and the ethics and place of AI in society. Research and training should be both main players and benefactors of the strategy, since "the first challenge of artificial intelligence is talent", to recall the words of the French president on many occasions.