While they welcome the appointment of a Secretary of State for AI, Clara Chappaz, who took office in September, the authors of a report invite the government “to go further”.
France must put in place a “real public policy” of artificial intelligence, managed at the highest level of the State, recommends a report from the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (OPECST), unveiled on Wednesday. “Rather than announcing a strategy without objectives, without governance and without monitoring tools”it is appropriate to deploy “a real public policy for AI” with real objectives and means, assert deputy Alexandre Sabatou (RN), senator Patrick Chaize (LR) and senator Corinne Narassiguin (PS), authors of the report. While they welcome the appointment of a Secretary of State for AI, Clara Chappaz, who took office in September, the rapporteurs invite the government “to go further” et “to define strategic management of public policy on artificial intelligence at the highest level with interministerial coordination.”
The report of more than 300 pages, entitled “ChatGPT, what next? Assessment and perspectives of artificial intelligence »resulting from the referral to OPECST by the National Assembly and the Senate in July 2023, reveals a total of 18 recommendations. Among these: the guarantee of control of data from French culture and the creation of data sets around French-speaking cultures, the development of an autonomous French or European sector across the entire value chain of artificial intelligence, the launch of major AI training programs for schools, professionals and the general public. The rapporteurs also suggest the organization of a “AI Grenelle” in order to launch a major social dialogue around this technology and its challenges. They consider it essential “to demystify artificial intelligence” facing the “catastrophist representations” conveyed by cinema and science fiction.
The regular monitoring and evaluation of national AI policy could be entrusted to the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices, the report suggests. The parliamentarians also deliver specific recommendations for the summit on artificial intelligence organized by the government in Paris on February 10 and 11. The event could be an opportunity to streamline global AI governance by creating a specialized institution under the auspices of the UN, whose “skills would extend from international coordination of AI regulation to combating the global digital divide”. “We must take advantage of the summit to announce the launch of a major European cooperation program in AI”an approach envisaged since 2017, which would bring together “at least France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain”details the report.
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