France considers ideas for world law by year’s end

PARIS — Top French politicians tell CNBC they expect global regulation of artificial intelligence to begin by the end of this year, as French President Emmanuel Macron joins forces with the U.S. to regulate burgeoning tech said I want to

The comments come as interest in AI continues to grow in the wake of the booming chatbot ChatGPT, and governments around the world debate how the technology should be regulated.

However, there is no global consensus on how AI should be managed and controlled, as the US, China and the European Union have adopted different approaches to AI rules. A global regulatory framework would be a huge achievement.

France is trying to establish itself as a hub for AI development in Europe as the European Union, which France joins, moves forward with the first-of-its-kind regulation.

Macron, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrault announced their intention to call for global regulation of AI in an interview with CNBC at the Vivatech conference in Paris on Wednesday.

Speaking alongside the event, Macron told CNBC’s Karen Tso: “From my point of view… I think regulation is necessary and all players, including US players, agree with it. Global regulation. I think it is necessary,” he said.

By the end of the year, Barrott said, “some of the core principles that the G7 and like-minded countries would like to see governing AI will begin to emerge.”

The G7 includes countries such as France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, which agreed this year to set up a working group to consider issues that might arise from AI.

Macron said the G7 and the 38-member Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) would be a “good platform” for developing global regulations.

France’s call for global AI regulation comes as the European Union nears passage of an unprecedented law called the EU AI Law. The European Parliament on Wednesday approved landmark European Union legislation aimed at regulating AI with a risk-based approach.

The latest legislative changes include a tougher stance on so-called generative AI, the type of technology underpinning OpenAI’s ChatGPT that allows systems to create images and respond to prompts with text. The regulation stipulates that generative AI developers must submit their systems for review prior to commercial release.

The law still requires approval from other EU institutions.

France, which has traditionally taken a pro-regulatory stance, has expressed concern that EU law on AI has gone too far.

“What worries me is that in recent weeks the EU parliament has taken a very strong stance on AI regulation, and in some ways this function of AI has been compromised by trying to solve too many problems at once. We’re using it as a tool,” Barrott said. He mentioned the regulations regarding generative AI.

Despite EU-level legislation continuing to function in the legislative process, France is pushing for global regulation and sees the United States as an important ally.

“Competition is always a good thing. That’s why we work very closely with the US, but we also want to gain access to our own AI intelligence and companies,” Lemaire told CNBC beside Vivatech. I have,” he said.

“Even in terms of regulation, I think it’s absolutely imperative that we have a thorough discussion with US authorities on how best to regulate artificial intelligence,” he added.

The U.S. has yet to come up with any framework for AI regulation. But US companies are among the most prominent in the space, with OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, and chipmaker Nvidia being leaders in the space.

In an interview with CNBC, top French politicians spoke about their focus on AI regulation.

“We want to make sure that this is safe and unbiased … that the language model we have is unbiased and … that what is prohibited in society is also prohibited in this model. We want to make sure that we are, so we need some rules,” Macron said.

AI like ChatGPT is trained on massive amounts of data called large language models that enable it to understand and respond to human language. However, there are concerns that the data used for training may introduce biases into the system.

Macron also said users have a right to know if they are watching videos or photos created by AI.

Ultimately, French politicians are considering regulation that balances the need to protect technology users without stifling innovation.

“What we want is to provide both protection for users and regulation that establishes trust, but it is also very flexible to allow development in the coming weeks and months in France and Europe. It’s also a strict regulation,” Barrott said.