The government has announced a new plan to boost France’s AI sector, with a budget of 2.2 billion euros. This funding will be allocated to training, practical applications of trustworthy AI, and a political and economic initiative aimed at promoting French and European regulatory standards.
In 2018, following a report by MP Cédric Villani, the French government announced a €1.5 billion AI plan to create and develop a network of interdisciplinary artificial intelligence institutes (3IA) and invest in computing capacity for public research.
This week, the government launched the second phase of its €2.2 billion AI plan, which includes €1.5 billion in public funding (primarily from PiA4 and France 2030) and €506 million in private funding.
This plan aims to make France a leader in embedded AI and trustworthy AI, as well as to accelerate the deployment of AI across the economy, in particularby:
- Training at least 2,000 students with two or three years of post-secondary education, 1,500 students with five years of post-secondary education, and 200 doctoral students each year.
- Placingat leastone university onthe list of global leaders.
- We are recruiting 15 world-class international scientistsby January 2024.
- Capturing 10 to 15% of the global embedded AI market by2025.
- Supporting 10 AI projects focused on proof-of-concept demonstrations or the development of low-cost AI technology.
- Launching four pilot projects demonstrating the use ofAI in the automotive, aerospace, Industry 4.0, and energy sectors bythe end of 2022.
- Supporting 400 small and medium-sized businesses and mid-market companies by 2025 in adopting AI solutions designed to boost their competitiveness.
- Strengthening the transition from research to innovation by scaling up several accelerators, with the goal of tripling the number of startups created by the end of 2023
- Developing open, sovereign platforms and their ecosystems in data science, machine learning, and robotics, and delivering 3 to 4 interoperable, multi-stakeholder software platforms on a European scale in the fields of embedded or decentralized AI and trustworthy AI.
In line with the goals of France 2030, talent is at the heart of our strategy: centers of excellence with international reach will enable our country to become a global leader in the field of AI and, as part of a broader training initiative, will help provide our startup ecosystem and companies undergoing transformation with the skills they so desperately need. Overall, this ambitious strategy should enable us to build on the success of the first phase and foster the emergence of future AI champions.
Cédric O, Secretary of State for Digital Transition and Electronic Communications
