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French President Emmanuel Macron wants Europe to become a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector, he told a global summit of AI and political leaders in Paris Monday where he announced that France’s private sector has invested nearly $113 billion in French AI. Financial investment is key to achieving the goal of Europe as an AI hub, Macron said in his remarks delivered in English at the Grand Palais. He said the European bloc would also need to “adopt the Notre Dame strategy,” a reference to the lightning swift rebuilding of France’s famed Notre Dame cathedral in five years after a devastating 2019 fire, the result of simplified regulations and adherence to timelines. "We showed the rest of the of the world that when we commit to a clear timeline, we can deliver," the French leader said. Henna Virkkunen, the European Union’s digital head, indicated that the EU is in agreement with simplifying regulations. The EU approved the AI Act last year, the world’s first extensive set of rules designed to regulate technology. European countries want to ensure that they have a stake in the tech race against an aggressive U.S. and other emerging challengers. European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is scheduled to address the EU’s ability to compete in the tech world Tuesday. Macron’s announcement that the French private sector will invest heavily in AI “reassured” Clem Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, a U.S. company with French co-founders that is a hub for open-source AI, that there will be “ambitious” projects in France, according to Reuters. Sundar Pichai, Google’s head, told the gathering that the shift to AI will be “the biggest of our lifetimes.” However, such a big shift also comes with problems for the AI community. France had wanted the summit to adopt a non-binding text that AI would be inclusive and sustainable. “We have the chance to democratize access [to a new technology] from the start,” Pichai told the summit. Whether the U.S. will agree to that initiative is uncertain, considering the U.S. government’s recent moves to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. U.S. Vice President JD Vance is attending the summit and expected to deliver a speech on Tuesday. Other politicians expected Tuesday at the plenary session are Chinese Vice Premier Zhan Guoqing and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. About 100 politicians are expected. There are also other considerations with a shift to AI. The World Trade Organization says its calculations indicate that a “near universal adoption of AI ... could increase trade by up to 14 percentage points” from what it is now but cautions that global “fragmentation” of regulations on AI technology and data flow could bring about the contraction of both trade and output. A somewhat frightening side effect of AI technology is that it can replace the need for humans in some sectors. International Labor Organization leader Gilbert Houngbo told the summit Monday that the jobs that AI can do, such as clerical work, are disproportionately held by women. According to current statistics, that development would likely widen the gender pay gap.

The Republican leader has repeatedly sought to limit the ability of transgender people to serve in US armed forces.

A consortium led by Elon Musk said Monday it has offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, another salvo in the billionaire's fight to block the artificial intelligence startup from transitioning to a for-profit firm. Musk's bid is likely to ratchet up longstanding tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the future of the startup at the heart of a boom in generative AI technology. Altman on Monday promptly posted on X: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want." Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit, but left before the company took off. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023. Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of tech and social media company X, is a close ally of President Donald Trump. He spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump, and leads the Department of Government Efficiency, a new arm of the White House tasked with radically shrinking the federal bureaucracy. Musk recently criticized a $500 billion OpenAI-led project announced by Trump at the White House. OpenAI is now trying to transition into a for-profit from a nonprofit entity, which it says is required to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models. Musk sued Altman and others in August last year, claiming they violated contract provisions by putting profit ahead of the public good in the push to advance AI. In November, he asked a U.S. district judge for a preliminary injunction blocking OpenAI from converting to a for-profit structure. Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman says the founders originally approached him to fund a nonprofit focused on developing AI to benefit humanity, but that it was now focused on making money. "It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," Musk said in a statement Monday. "We will make sure that happens." Musk and OpenAI backer Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "Musk's bid puts another wrinkle into OpenAI's quest to remove the nonprofit's control over its for-profit entity," said Rose Chan Loui, executive director of the UCLA Law Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits. "This bid sets a marker for the valuation of the nonprofit's economic interests," she said. "If OpenAI values the nonprofit's interests at less than what Musk is offering, then they would have to show why." The consortium led by Musk includes his AI startup xAI, Baron Capital Group, Valor Management, Atreides Management, Vy Fund III, Emanuel Capital Management, and Eight Partners. XAI could merge with OpenAI following a deal, according to The Wall Street Journal which first reported Musk's offer earlier Monday. XAI recently raised $6 billion from investors at a valuation of $40 billion, sources have told Reuters. Throwing a wrench "This (bid) is definitely throwing a wrench in things," said Jonathan Macey, a Yale Law School professor specializing in corporate governance. "The nonprofit is supposed to take money to do whatever good deeds, and if OpenAI prefers to sell it to somebody else for less money, it's a concern for protecting the interests of the beneficiaries of the not-for-profit. If this was a public company, plaintiffs' lawyers would justifiably be lining up down the block to sue that transaction." OpenAI was valued at $157 billion in its last funding round, cementing its status as one of the most valuable private companies in the world. SoftBank Group is in talks to lead a funding round of up to $40 billion in OpenAI at a valuation of $300 billion, including the new funds, Reuters reported in January. Aside from any antitrust implications, a deal this size would need Musk and his consortium to raise enormous funds. "Musk's offer to buy OpenAI’s nonprofit should significantly complicate OpenAI’s current fundraising and the process of converting into a for-profit corporation," said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson. "The offer seems to be backed by more credible investors ... OpenAI may not be able to ignore it. It will be the fiduciary responsibility of OpenAI’s board to decide whether this is a better offer, which could call into question the offer from SoftBank." Musk's stock in Tesla is valued at roughly $165 billion, according to LSEG data, but his leverage with banks is likely to be thin after his $44 billion buyout of the social media platform that was called Twitter in 2022.

PARIS — In front of political and tech leaders gathered at a summit in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a strategy on Monday to make up for the delay in France and Europe in investing in artificial intelligence (AI) but was faced with a "counter-summit" that pointed out the risks of the technology.  The use of chatbots at work and school is destroying jobs, professions and threatening the acquisition of knowledge, said union representatives gathered at the Theatre de la Concorde located in the Champs-Elysees gardens, less than a kilometer from the venue of the Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence.  Habib El Kettani, from Solidaires Informatique, a union representing IT workers, described an "automation already underway for about ten years," which has been reinforced with the arrival of the flagship tool ChatGPT at the end of 2022.  "I have been fighting for ten years to ensure that my job does not become an endangered species," said Sandrine Larizza, from the CGT union at France Travail, a public service dedicated to the unemployed.  She deplored "a disappearance of social rights that goes hand in hand with the automation of public services," where the development of AI has served, according to her "to make people work faster to respond less and less to the needs of users, by reducing staff numbers."  Loss of meaning  "With generative AI, it is no longer the agent who responds by email to the unemployed person but the generative AI that gives the answers with a multitude of discounted job offers in subcontracting," said Larizza.  This is accompanied by "a destruction of our human capacities to play a social role, a division into micro-tasks on the assembly line and an industrialization of our professions with a loss of meaning," she said, a few days after the announcement of a partnership between France Travail and the French startup Mistral.  "Around 40 projects" are also being tested "with postal workers," said Marie Vairon, general secretary of the Sud PTT union of the La Poste and La Banque Postale group.  AI is used "to manage schedules and simplify tasks with a tool tested since 2020 and generalized since 2023," she said, noting that the results are "not conclusive."  After the implementation at the postal bank, La Banque Postale, of "Lucy," a conversational robot handling some "300,000 calls every month," Vairon is concerned about a "generative AI serving as a coach for bank advisers."  ‘Students are using it’  On the education side, "whether we like it or not, students are using it," said Stephanie de Vanssay, national educational and digital adviser of the National Union of Autonomous Unions (UNSA) for primary and secondary school.  "We have indifferent teachers, worried teachers who are afraid of losing control and quality of learning, skeptics, and those who are angry about all the other priorities," she said.  Developing the critical thinking of some 12 million students is becoming, in any case, "an even more serious concern and it is urgent to explain how to use these tools and why," de Vanssay said.  The Minister of National Education Elisabeth Borne announced on Thursday the launch of a call for tenders for an AI for teachers, as well as a charter of use and training for teachers.  "No critical thinking without interactions and without helping each other to think and progress in one's thinking, which requires intermediation," said Beatrice Laurent, national secretary of UNSA education. "A baby with a tablet and nursery rhymes will not learn to speak."

Musk's bid could ratchet up longstanding tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the future of the startup.

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