“It’s not a good idea”: Macron reserved on the fact that Europe regulates AI “more than the others”

2023-12-11 21:52:29

Emmanuel Macron criticized on Monday the agreement reached last week by the European Union for an unprecedented global framework for artificial intelligence (AI), saying that it was “not a good idea” to want “much more regulate than other » countries.

“I ask that we evaluate this regulation on a regular basis. And if we lose leaders or pioneers because of that, we will have to come back to it,” argued the French head of state during a speech on innovation in Toulouse.

The EU agreed on Friday on unprecedented legislation at the global level to regulate AI, after three days of intense negotiations between member states and the European Parliament. This text, presented as “historic” by the European Commission, is supposed to promote innovation in Europe, while limiting the possible excesses of these very advanced technologies.

“I say it in all honesty”

Referring to this European regulation, Emmanuel Macron welcomed the fact that it “consolidates” the “French model of regulation”. But “in my eyes, I speak to you with complete frankness”, it “makes us the first place in the world where, on the so-called foundational models of AI, we will regulate much more than the others”, noted the French president.

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“I don’t think it’s a good idea and I say that honestly. So it will have to be evaluated,” he added, explaining that the British, the Chinese and the Americans “will not have this regulation”. “We can decide to regulate much faster and much stronger than our major competitors. But we will regulate things that we will no longer produce or invent. This is never a good idea and therefore we must always be at the right speed and in any case at the right rhythm,” insisted Emmanuel Macron.

In Le FigaroEuropean Commissioner Thierry Breton, at the origin of the project presented in April 2021, stressed that the text was “the fruit of a great consensus”, ensuring that it was “no longer open to discussion”.