In his office in Paris’s National Assembly, Cédric Villani opens a parcel: it contains a metallic spider. “Lovely,” he says, putting it on a shelf, where a collection of spider-shaped objects sits next to his scientific decorations and a photo of him with Mark Zuckerberg.
Villani is on a mission. Well, on several missions: the French mathematician, winner of the 2010 Fields Medal – often described as maths’ Nobel Prize – sits as an MP for Emmanuel Macron’s party La République en Marche, teaches at the University of Lyon, and is running for the Paris 2020 mayoralty. But the expert in mathematical analysis, famous for his academic achievements as well as for wearing spider-shaped pins on his three-piece suits, has a bigger goal: making France a leader in artificial intelligence.
Appointed by the French president to set out a national AI strategy, in 2018 Villani published a report, “AI for Humanity”, setting clear lines for the sector: “We must valorise our research, define our industrial priorities, work on the ethical and legal framework and on AI training,” Villani says, sat among his spiders – one as big a pillow – in his office.
Following the report’s publication, President Macron announced an investment of €1.5bn, over four years, to implement most of Villani’s propositions. “I want France to be one of the leaders of the AI sector,” Macron said. “We have the means, and we will create the conditions.”
Villani identified four sectors to prioritise: health, defence, transport, and the environment. From early detection of pathologies to green urban mobility, AI can be used for “common good”, Villani concluded in the report, and recommended the creation of open data platforms for each sector. Data on energy, transport, agriculture, biodiversity, climate, agriculture and much more could help all four sectors, for example by forecasting traffic peaks, pollution, floods, and allowing a better organisation of French public life.
About 95 per cent of his propositions are being implemented by the government, Villani says; health is the sector in which the creation of the data platform is most advanced. But Villani estimates that the number of AI students must be tripled to answer the sector’s needs. The government is aiming to double it, and wants at least 40 per cent of researchers to be female. “We’re currently very far from these goals. It’s going to take very voluntarist actions,” Villani says.
Research is expected to play a pivotal role in Villani’s plan. On November 6, 2018, the minister for Research and Innovation, Frédérique Vidal, announced the creation of four “interdisciplinary AI institutes”, or “3IA”, in Paris, Toulouse, Grenoble and Nice, where academics and industrials will work together on AI projects around local priorities in health, education, robotics, the environment and public policy.
For the 3IA to be a success, France will need to retain talent. On Villani’s advice, the government is now trying to stem the scientific “brain drain”: to retain world-class French mathematicians, algorithmics experts and statisticians, who often leave low-paying roles in France for the US or China, a new law will allow them to take on better-paid consultancy work, for a maximum of 50 per cent of their time. Villani also suggested doubling researchers’ salaries, but the government turned that recommendation down. To Nozha Boujemaa, the research director at the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation, which will coordinate the 3IA project, this is a problem: “We won’t be competitive enough,” she says.
The €1.5bn budget allocated by Macron shows France’s limits on competitiveness, too. “One billion is less than a regional budget in the US or China,” Boujemaa says. Villani knows France can’t compete with Chinese investment – the city of Tianjin alone has a £11.6bn AI budget – but it’s not about France, he says: it’s about Europe. “France will do nothing in the AI sector without Europe. We need networks of researchers and institutes throughout Europe, to work with each other’s strengths and good practices.” For this reason, Villani, finds Brexit “tragic”.
“At a moment when we need all European skills, in a context of harsh competition worldwide, it is regrettable to lose the UK’s remarkable expertise. It is in France and the UK’s best interest to keep close links in the AI sector.”
France may not become the AI leader, but it can become an AI leader. Villani’s biggest challenge isn’t budget or international competition: it’s changing the cultural mindset. He gives the example of two French ministry services where an algorithm was tested to improve the office’s operations. Although its efficacy was proved, one test was stopped quickly, and Villani expects the other to stop, too, because people were wary of the changes introduced by AI. “It’s about cultural adaptation, about the whole engine being in the same mindset,” he says. “We must convince everyone to cooperate.”
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
