French President Macron Discusses AI with Meta and Google Executives

During a meeting with AI specialists from Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, among other companies, French President Emmanuel Macron discussed France’s involvement in AI research and regulation.

In a meeting at the Elysée Palace with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, Macron heard from experts, including Yann LeCun, chief artificial intelligence researcher at Meta, and Joëlle Barral, director of design at Google Research, according to people familiar with the matter. who asked not to be named because the meeting was private.

The guests discussed France’s position in the global artificial intelligence race, the positive and negative effects of technology on society, and the future regulation of Europe, known by people as the AI law. Macron’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s meeting.

While Macron mostly wanted to hear from outsiders, attendees understood that the French president wants to play a key role in European and global AI regulation. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has also expressed interest in influencing regulation, and Macron’s strategy is to speed up competition between London and Paris to become the number one destination for all things technology, innovation and venture capital.

Macron is expected to present France’s plan for generative artificial intelligence next week at the VivaTech technology conference in Paris, which starts on June 14, according to people familiar with the matter. Next week, he is also scheduled to talk about the country’s economic sovereignty and meet with representatives of a drug factory and a high-tech sneaker company before speaking at an event about reducing the carbon footprint of airplanes, the people said.

Elon Musk, CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc., will also attend the VivaTech conference. Musk said last month after meeting Macron in Paris that he was confident Tesla would make significant investments in France in the future.

Macron’s goal is to convince Musk that France is the best center for electric cars

The Elysée meeting was also attended by Antoine Bordes, vice president of the European defense startup Helsinki; Arthur Mensch, former DeepMind researcher and co-founder of OpenAI’s potential French competitor, Mistral AI; Laurent Daudet, Co-CEO of LightOn; and Charles Gorint, founder of insurance unicorn Alan.