Emmanuel Macron, president of France, speaks at the Viva Tech fair in Paris, France, on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Macron told CNBC that he thinks there is a need for global regulation of artificial intelligence.
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PARIS — Leading French politicians tell CNBC they see the start of global regulation of artificial intelligence coming later this year, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying the country wants to cooperate. with the United States on the rules surrounding this fast-growing technology.
The comments come as interest in AI, sparked by the rapid growth of ChatGPT chatbots, continues to grow and governments around the world are debating how to govern the technology.
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But there is no global consensus on how to govern and control AI with the US, China and the European Union adopting different approaches to the rules surrounding the technology. Any global regulatory framework would be a huge feat.
France has positioned itself as the European center of AI development even as the European Union, of which France is a member, pushes ahead with first-of-its-kind regulations.
Macron, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Digital Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who all spoke to CNBC on Wednesday at the VivaTech conference in Paris, expressed their desire for global regulation of AI.
“In my view… I think we need a regulation and all the parties involved, including the players in the US, agree to that. I think we need a global regulation. demand,” Macron told CNBC’s Karen Tso on the sidelines of the event.
Barrot said that by the end of the year, “some of the core principles we want for AI regulation in the G7 and like-minded countries will begin to emerge.”
The G7 includes countries such as France, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom. These countries have agreed to form a working group to look at issues that may arise from AI this year.
Macron said the G7 and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which includes 38 countries, would be a “good foundation” for developing global regulation.
Why now?
France concerned about EU AI law
France’s call for global AI regulation comes as the European Union is about to pass an unprecedented bill. the so-called EU AI Act. European Parliament on Wednesday approved the bloc’s landmark law, looks like it will take a risk-based approach to regulating AI.
The latest amendments to the law include a tougher stance on so-called generalized AI, the technology that underpins OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which allows systems to generate images or text responses to reminder. The regulation states that innovative AI developers will be required to submit their systems for review prior to commercial release.
The law still needs approval from other EU bodies.
France, which has traditionally advocated a regulatory stance, has expressed concern that EU legislation on AI has gone too far.
“I worry that in the last few weeks the EU Parliament… has taken a very strong stance on AI regulation, in a sense, using this AI as a way to try and solve too many problems together. for a while,” said Barrot of the regulations surrounding innovative AI.
The focus is on US competition and cooperation
Even as EU-level legislation continues to work its way through the legislative process, France is still pushing for regulation on a global scale and it sees the US as an important ally.
“Competition is always a good thing. So we work very closely with the US, but we also want access to our own companies and AI,” Le Maire told CNBC on the sideline. VivaTech.
“In terms of regulation, I think it’s extremely important to have in-depth discussions with the US government on how best to regulate AI,” he added.
The US has yet to come up with any framework for AI regulation. But American companies are among the most prominent in the space with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, as well as chipmaker Nvidia being leader in space.
What do the French want about regulation?
Leading French politicians who spoke to CNBC discussed their focus on AI regulation.
“We want to make sure that this is safe, unbiased…that the language models we have are unbiased and that what’s… is forbidden in society will be banned in this model. So we need some rules,” Macron said.
AI like ChatGPT is trained on huge amounts of data known as big language models that allow it to understand human language and respond. But there are concerns that the data it is trained on could cause that system to inherit biases.
Macron also said that if you’re watching a video or an AI-generated photo, the user has a right to know.
Finally, French politicians are weighing regulations that balance the need to protect users of technology without stifling innovation.
“What we want is a regulation that both protects users … and builds trust, but is also flexible enough to allow it to grow over the next few weeks and months in France and Europe,” said Barrot. speak.
