“Artificial intelligence [IA] can be an opportunity, particularly for health or accessibility [des personnes en situation de handicap] but it can also create inequalities. » This is one of the warnings made in the report of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) on this technology, explains its co-rapporteur Marianne Tordeux Bitker. “While for more than ten years all public policies in France have focused on the economic development of AI, there was a need, ahead of the AI summit organized in Paris on February 10 and 11 , to expose the voice of civil society »adds this director of public affairs for the start-up association France Digitale. The rise of AI requires creating a “acceptability framework” for the French, adds co-rapporteur Erik Meyer, federal secretary of the SUD-Rail union.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers “The power of tech giants is eroding democracy”
Read later
Given the challenges posed by AI, the authors of the report once went so far as to consider advocating a “moratorium” on this technology, before dismissing it, “given the geopolitical context and the need for European solutions”says Mme Tordeux Bitker.
But the document warns of the risk of seeing AI reinforce the digital divide. “There is a skills issue”underlines the co-rapporteur. 31.5% of the French population considers themselves “far from digital”or 16 million people, recalls the document, citing a study by the Research Center for the study and observation of living conditions in 2023, an increasing trend.
Among them, elderly people with few qualifications, residents of white areas, but also “one in five people under 25”. However, AI will increasingly allow access to essential rights and services, in health, education, banking or even employment, continues Mme Tordeux Bitker.
A “right to non-digital”
The report therefore considers it essential to launch a vast “training plan”which is led by companies in addition to civil servants, educational staff or digital mediators, including “the number is falling due to the budgetary context”. We must also review national education programs to integrate AI, notes Mr. Meyer. In addition, the authors advocate a guarantee of access to public services, in particular through a “right to non-digital” which would allow users to interact with a human, rather than a chatbot, if they wish.
You have 47.06% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
