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by Martin Coulter
France is hosting a host of tech executives and political figures this week, including Tesla TSLA.O boss and X owner Elon Musk, former US Secretary of State John Kerry and former Google executive Eric Schmidt , in order to affirm the role of Paris as an “essential place” for artificial intelligence (AI).
The Viva Technology conference, which takes place from May 22 to 25 in the capital, will provide an opportunity for participants to address key issues related to AI, including its potential impact on the next elections and climate change .
President Emmanuel Macron, who plans to go to VivaTech, will participate this Tuesday by videoconference in the international summit on AI being held in Seoul, a summit that France will organize in 2025.
He will then bring together several AI players at the Elysée before a speech, scheduled for 4:40 p.m. GMT, on “the position of France and Europe in terms of artificial intelligence”, the Elysée announced.
The Head of State is expected to take up certain recommendations from the Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which submitted its report in mid-March after six months of work.
“The goal is for Paris to become absolutely essential in AI. Today, we are at the heart of the debates. Now, we must succeed in confirming and taking a step forward because the other global places, whether in Shanghai or San Francisco, very clearly, are not waiting for us and are also accelerating,” indicates the Elysée.
“We are obviously dealing with an extremely strategic technology, in which investments are considerable throughout the world, which poses a lot of questions to citizens, which is probably one of the very important reservoirs for productivity and internal growth,” adds the palace. presidential.
DYNAMIC ECOSYSTEM
Over the past 18 months, France has attempted to build a reputation as a leader in the field of so-called generative AI, the technology that notably underpins OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT tool, by striving to attract new startups.
For the moment, Paris is positioned behind London in terms of technological investments, but “the Parisian ecosystem is very dynamic and investments have been numerous in recent years”, underlines François Bitouzet, general director of VivaTech.
Investors have pumped nearly eight billion dollars into French tech companies in 2023, behind Britain ($13 billion) but ahead of Germany ($7 billion), according to a recent report from the capital firm -Atomico risk.
For the organizers of VivaTech, the status of Paris as the world capital of luxury constitutes an asset for attracting investments in the field of technology.
“Luxury is always linked to innovation, because the objective is always to offer something that no one else can offer,” observes François Bitouzet.
A sign of this link between luxury and “tech”, LVMH LVMH.PA, headed by Bernard Arnault, is a founding partner of VivaTech.
(Written by Martin Coulter, with contributions from Mimosa Spencer, Blandine Hénault for the French version, edited by Kate Entringer)