“Libé” returns to meet the French who made the news in our columns to talk about the presidential election. Today, Anis Ayari, an artificial intelligence engineer and youtuber, is tackling the lack of suitable digital proposals. Never mind, he unfolds his own program for us.
The Zoom exchange begins with an apology. “I have a broken voice”, warns Anis Ayari, Bluetooth headphones on the ears. The night before, he held a live on Twitch. An hour of cries, exclamations. Annoyance, too. The reason ? He reviewed the proposals of the presidential candidates on digital. And, between Pécresse and Zemmour militant for the establishment of a French cloud or Dupont-Aignan promising a Google Frenchie, this youtubeur, also an engineer in artificial intelligence, spotted a beautiful error 404 in terms of realistic measurements.
“Everyone talks about “digital sovereignty”, he raises, irritated. True sovereignty starts with having good tech.” Since the first time we spoke with him, the tone has changed. In December, the 29-year-old, followed by more than 63,000 people on YouTube, told us the story of his fake Miss France generator. Today, he reveals the magic formula for having “good tech” : “France is becoming a technological third world, we must invest massively and in the right people.”
With studies in engineering, “Defend Intelligence”, of his nickname, is one of the latter. And, like nearly 70,000 French people, he joined Silicon Valley after graduating. In France, the contracts offered were most often precarious. Lower salaries. “You are a developer in France, we will put you in a cellar”, he complains.
The start-up monarchy
Same disillusionment with self-employment. Twice he tried to launch his own start-up by calling the Public Investment Bank, which finances companies, a dozen times. No answer. “A friend told me that you had to have the right contacts. She gave me the number of a guy who got back to me within the hour,” he recalls.
A maddening experience for this son of a retired legionnaire originally rather far from the benches of French Tech. “My father arrived from Tunisia in France to work as a mason. He joined the Legion and that’s how he got his nationality.” he says. So faced with the meritocratic mirage sold by the “start-up nation”it bubbles: “It works mostly like a monarchy. You just have to look at the profile of the entrepreneurs: no diversity.”
Far from sinking into inertia, Anis Ayari uses her natural bonhomie to live up to the inspired phrase written on her pullover: “Make the world a better place” (“make the world better” in French). No, the engineer does not recognize himself in any of the proposals made. Yes, the Mélenchonist idea of deploying an army of underwater drones to protect internet cables is grotesque. To raise the debate, he therefore puts forward a solution: allow competent people to participate.
“Come on, dude guys!”
Now employed in a start-up in Marseille, he has, during his live Twitch and with his subscribers, built his own program. High on his political to-do list is inclusivity. With an almost electoral tone, he proclaims: “I want a national campaign aimed at young girls in colleges and high schools to encourage them to pursue careers in tech.” While most candidates propose the implementation of code courses from college, he refines: “Rather than burdening the shoulders of teachers more, we could create jobs for computer science students.”
Offering tech training to people in precarious situations, creating a digital ministry, fighting against illiteracy… With vivacity, he lists all the measures envisaged. And dwells on one: that of promoting start-up projects working for the general interest. Claiming to want “to positively influence the lives of French people and not just make money to make money”, he himself explains that he excludes job offers from banks or finance.
The allocation of funding to businesses should therefore, according to him, work in the same way, by favoring projects geared towards ecology or inclusiveness. “Today, we only put on the front of the stage start-ups that are not profitable, with limited social utility, with foreign investment. But Cédric O is there in “come on, cocorico guys!” mode, he regrets.
Faced with these ideas, we venture to ask the question: is an Anis Ayari candidacy coming? The young man admits to toying with the idea of becoming a deputy. Speaking inadvertently of “technological current” instead of “political current”, he even explains that he wrote to four different parties, without specifying which ones. But, again, history repeats itself: “Every time I am asked if I have any contacts.”