In the absence of President Emmanuel Macron, who is busy in New Caledonia to calm the tensions shaking the archipelago, it was Marina Ferrari, the Secretary of State for Digital, who inaugurated the 2024 edition of VivaTech. The former MP took the opportunity to make an impassioned appeal in favor of French Tech, of which she became the main political supporter after replacing Jean-Noël Barrot following a long government reshuffle.
On the main stage of VivaTech in Paris, alongside Maurice Lévy, chairman of the supervisory board of Publicis Groupe, and Pierre Louette, CEO of the Les Échos-Le Parisien group (organisers of the Parisian show), Ferrari celebrated the fact that France is the cradle of 32 technological “unicorns”. Despite the difficulties for startups to obtain funding, Ferrari remained optimistic thanks to the fervor in the deeptech and artificial intelligence sectors.
On Tuesday evening, H, an AI startup founded by former members of Google Deepmind, announced an impressive fundraising of $220 million, with investors such as Xavier Niel, Bernard Arnault, Eric Schmidt, Samsung and Amazon. Mistral AI, the French spearhead in generative AI, also entered the Next 40, an index that celebrates the most promising French startups. “With the acceleration of AI, we are experiencing a true revolution. It has enormous potential to transform our economies and societies,” Ferrari told VivaTech.
Faced with the prospects, but also the concerns raised by AI, Ferrari praised the recent statements of Emmanuel Macron, who announced his ambition to make Paris and France the world epicenter of AI. “The capital of lights is becoming a capital of artificial intelligence,” the President said during an event at the Elysée with the sector’s main players. Macron has promised an additional 400 million euros to develop centers of excellence and train 100,000 AI experts per year, compared to the current 40,000, in addition to the launch by the end of the year of an investment fund for language models and hardware, with a state participation of 25%.
Amid the excitement over AI, Brussels introduced the AI Act to regulate the sector, a move greeted with concern by many French startups fearful of being held back compared to American and Asian competitors. “Our position is clear: we want both regulation and innovation,” Ferrari said, stressing that innovation must not be stifled by regulation. Brussels, accustomed to issuing digital regulations, such as the Digital Services Act, has found a determined interlocutor in Paris. Despite numerous regulations and economic difficulties, Ferrari urged entrepreneurs to persevere, quoting Pierre de Coubertin: “Success is not an objective, but a means to aim higher.”
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