Red card for AI. At the start of the school year, artificial intelligence is (again) a bad performer. After the start-up Greenly which estimated the CO2 emissions of the new version of Chat GPT3 at the equivalent of 136 round trips between Paris and New York, it is the turn of Shaolei Ren, a researcher at University of Riverside, to look into the ecological question. According to him, a simple request such as “write a 100-word email” would be equivalent in consumption terms to a bottle of water and enough energy to light 14 LED bulbs for an hour.
Rat diaphragm
The rating is not better in terms of social impact. Les Échos published this month an analysis of how artificial intelligence and technological innovations are eroding salaries paid globally.
An observation unfortunately made for a long time by translators who, after seeing their salaries plummet, published an article on September 9 in Le Monde entitled: “No, artificial intelligence will not replace translators! »
Bad student and copier to boot. Recently, French researchers discovered that one of their studies, ultrasound of the diaphragm in rats, had been plagiarized by Chinese colleagues.
In her “Billet sciences” (France Info), Anne Le Gall explains that this practice is increasingly common and undetectable thanks to generative artificial intelligence, but also that use of the latter is now commonplace for detect fraudsters.
Sapiens, the return version 2.0
After several hundred thousand copies sold of Sapiens and a few other best sellers to his credit, Yuval Noah Harari returns with a new work, Nexus, a brief history of information networks, from the Stone Age to AI (Albin Michel, September 25). On this occasion, France Info devotes a portrait to him.
Across the Channel, AI is also making its mark in schools. The British private college David Game launched a particularly innovative program this fall with an alternative pathway which offers certain students a course where the main subjects are taught by platforms driven by AI. Closer to us, in Haute-Savoie, the Annecienne Compilatio company has developed AI-based software which allows exams to be corrected more quickly. Called “Gingo”, the tool is still in the testing phase with around a hundred volunteer teachers, specifies France Inter.
Minister IA
Speaking of school, it is the new government of Michel Barnier which returned to school with a novelty on the program: a State Secretariat in charge of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology. The latter replaces the former State Secretariat for Digital Affairs and thus highlights the development of AI. Clara Chappaz, former director of Mission French Tech, was appointed. Le Monde devotes a portrait to him.
A secretariat that comes at the right time as conflicts multiply around artificial intelligence companies. On September 13, La Lettre revealed, via an intercepted letter, Open AI’s refusal to enter into negotiations with the French media unions Apig and SEPM. Le Monde therefore remains to this day the only French media to have signed a contract with the American company.
Similarly, Meta and Apple have suspended the launch of their artificial intelligence assistant in EU countries. According to them, the 27 would impose too rigid legislation. Faced with this unprecedented pressure, Brussels is defending its positions. The standoff is on…
