France to spend $1.8 billion on AI to compete with U.S., China

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron promised 1.5 billion euros ($1.85 billion) of public funding into artificial intelligence by 2022 in a bid to reverse a brain drain and catch up with the dominant U.S. and Chinese tech giants.

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the Artificial Intelligence for Humanity event in Paris, France, March 29, 2018.

The investment is part of an AI strategy laid out by the centrist leader at the elite College de France research institute in Paris and builds on a report that points to the assets and drawbacks of France in the field.

Business-friendly Macron wants to turn France into a “start up nation” and bets that easing labor laws and higher investments technology will create jobs, alleviate the domination of Alphabet’s Google, Facebook and lay out the seeds for Europe-based champions.

“There’s no chance of controlling any effects (of these technologies) or having a say on any adverse effect if we’ve missed the start of the war,” the president said on Thursday in front of a row of ministers and top executives, including BNP Paribas Jean-Laurent Bonnafé.

French President Emmanuel Macron looks through a microscope during a visit concerning the artificial intelligence with researchers at the Institut Curie Hospital in Paris, France, March 29, 2018.

He spoke between two black boards covered with complex equations in the main amphitheatre of the institute, founded in the 16th century.

The first goal is to make better use of the French higher education system that trains computer engineers and mathematicians only to see them leave for jobs at top U.S. tech companies.

Some of them have secured high-level positions Google and Facebook, and Facebook, which opened an AI research center in Paris in 2015.

(REUTERS)