On February 2, the 27 unanimously ratified the European agreement on the regulation of artificial intelligence. On this occasion, France managed to obtain some concessions, in particular on the transparency of model training data.
Among the economic sphere, the AI Act does not only make people happy, as illustrated by the declarations of Michel Paulin, the general director of OVHcloud. On BFM, the manager recognizes that AI poses real problems.
Regulate yes, but with measure and at the right pace
“AI poses real fundamental, ethical questions,” reacts the business leader. “I think it’s rushed, however,” he adds. “We are the first in the world. Is it the goal to be the first in the world?” he asks himself.
And Michel Paulin regrets the delay taken by Europe in other areas, thus citing the regulation of the cloud and the implementation of the GDPR. “On the principle of regulation, I think it’s important,” he concedes.
However, he continues, being the first at the global level and putting “the cursor very, very far” turns out to be “regrettable”, criticizes the boss of OVHcloud. “I would prefer that we question the very important regulations today”, citing again the cloud, a market which directly concerns the French supplier.
OVHcloud at the heart of the AI market
“There is a rush on AI that seems to me, and to us, rushed,” he insists. Michel Paulin fears in particular a limitation of innovation by European companies, even though “we are barely understanding what is happening with AI.”
“It’s this rush that I don’t understand” and “the entire tech ecosystem is wondering,” underlines the general director. “Why go so far, so quickly, I find it a little surprising.” A position that would be shared by other companies in the sector.
And if Michel Paulin publicly expresses regret, it is in particular because artificial intelligence is set to occupy a central place in OVHcloud’s activities. Like other of its competitors in France, the clouder has signed an agreement with the global GPU giant, Nvidia.
Transparency and choice to combat black boxes
“Our positioning is to offer the democratization of access to artificial intelligence, to ensure that the solutions are simple, economically affordable by all companies,” specifies the French manager.
According to him, the deployment of AI requires four components: “big computing capacities”, data, software and “a lot of expertise”. On these four fundamentals, OVHcloud believes it provides the solutions necessary for the accessibility of AI, in particular GPUs and infrastructure services.
Michel Paulin also defends the importance of transparency and choice, that is to say free and fair competition. And for this, it is important not to make “black boxes” de facto standards on the market. “What is totally regrettable” is the place given to “opaque, biased, closed systems.”
Regulation, even if the general director criticizes it in its current form, “is essential”, he repeats. He concludes: “but to what extent do we regulate? That’s the real question.”