Kyutai, an open source artificial intelligence research laboratory, was inaugurated on Friday November 17, 2023. Behind this project, we find three well-known businessmen: Xavier Niel, CEO of Iliad; Rodolphe Saadé, CEO of CMA-CGM; and Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google. The objective: attract today’s talents to develop tomorrow’s technologies, all in Europe, in order to compete with the leadership of the United States in AI.
What are Xavier Niel, Rodolphe Saadé and Eric Schmidt preparing with Kyutai?
Long question, precise answer. Our colleagues from Numerama had the opportunity to follow the launch of Kyutai live from Station F, and to learn a little more about the ambitions of this new entity.
With OpenAI, Microsoft and Google, artificial intelligence is taking a completely American turn. To strengthen European sovereignty, Kyutai seeks to stand out by focusing on open source.
By focusing on sharing research in the field of artificial intelligence, the trio composed of Xavier Niel, Rodolphe Saadé and Eric Schmidt wants to attract today’s talents, talents in limited number and often monopolized by Gafam . For this, Kyutai would capitalize on salaries by aligning with those offered by the Americans. Xavier Niel explains wanting to do AI “a subject of common good”.
Numerama emphasizes that Kyutai is adopting the same strategy as OpenAI in its early days: it will not seek to market products under its own name, instead striving to develop models to offer them free of charge to companies.
Initially, the objective will be to develop fundamental artificial intelligence models, including an LLM model to attack the hegemony of OpenAI’s famous GPT.
Catching up with Europe in AI
It must be said that with a capital of 300 million euros at its launch, Kyutai seems to have ambitions going beyond a simple non-profit foundation. However, Xavier Niel remains firm on the subject, stressing that his only goal is to help France launch into artificial intelligence to avoid being left behind.
Xavier Niel mentions in passing the limitations in terms of rules and operations in the United States or China, but also a vision different from ours. This is why he admits to being convinced that AI is a key factor for the future: “It is important for us, for our economy, for our businesses, in the next 10 or 20 years. If we don’t do anything, nothing will happen. That’s the only thing I’m sure of”.