With our partner Salesforce, unify sales, marketing and customer service. Accele your growth!
A few hours before the summit for action on artificial intelligence which will be held in particular at the Grand Palais in Paris, different voices are raised against government policy carried out in the digital field. Starting with that of the LFI leader, Jean Luc Mélenchon who sends a severe criticism of Emmanuel Macron whom he accuses of transforming the country into “digital colony” in a forum published by Le Figaro. The leader of rebellious France deplores the triumphant reception reserved for leaders of Silicon Valley and large American investors at this summit, in the eyes of the LFI leader, this posture reflects a capitulation in the face of digital multinationals and signs the ‘Abandonment of any strictly French ambition in the field of AI.
The first criticism emanates from the announced presence of major figures of the technological industry, in particular Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai (Google), Brad Smith (Microsoft) and the new vice-president of the United States, JD Vance “A man from Silicon Valley Rapaces Investment Fund ”according to him.
We could not confirm your registration.
Your registration is confirmed.
For Jean Luc Mélenchon, it is not a simple diplomatic exercise, but a pernicious symbol. By unrolling the red carpet to investors which he describes as “new tech lords”, the Élysée would show a form of economic-political dependence, while neglecting national skills.
He recalls that French engineers and researchers specializing in artificial intelligence are widely recognized across the Atlantic and that many of them are already working in the Google or Meta laboratories. According to him, this brain leak is the consequence of a strategic lack of scope within the state apparatus and underinvestment in public research.
Jean Luc Mélenchon underlines that France nevertheless has solid foundations to compete with foreign giants, recalling in this regard the example of the Bloom initiative, an open source artificial intelligence model developed under the aegis of the CNRS. He wonders about the future of this project, which he regrets that he did not benefit from a mobilization comparable to that deployed by the American industry around Chatgpt or other private AI solutions.
The most severe criticism relates to the policy of the offer defended by the government, reduced according to Mélenchon to a strategy aimed at attracting unanswered foreign capital. He quotes the announcements of provision of 35 sites to build data centers on French territory, infrastructure which would mechanically strengthen the dominant position of the GAFAM. By storing data in these centers held or exploited by American actors, France would be exposed to the laws of extra-territoriality of the United States, which would represent a major issue of sovereignty, including in fields as sensitive as the defense or health.
The former presidential candidate is also concerned about the political influence of digital multinationals, evoking the public positions of Elon Musk and the recent declarations of Google on the rise of artificial intelligence in the military sector . He sees it as the danger of collusion between private and defense imperatives, to which France is not immune as soon as it entrusts the storage of its strategic data to foreign entities. In his eyes, the European regulatory project, already deemed insufficient, comes up against the action of France, which he believes that it would play the game of lobbyists to lower the safeguards intended to contain the power of the GAFAM.
His proposal to escape this dependence revolves around the concept of digital sovereignty. He pleads for the creation of public data centers, thus forming a French cloud freed from “diktats” imposed by large American companies. He calls for the pooling of sensitive data, their management by national or supranational institutions, and the organization of international governance of AI entrusted to the UN. His objective, he writes, is to build an alternative based on the general interest and on the collective mastery of digital infrastructure, rather than relying on the only financial and “techno-feudal markets” of Silicon Valley.
