France appoints engineer to lead artificial intelligence safety summit

French President Emmanuel Macron has tasked engineer Anne Bouverot with organising the world's next Artificial Intelligence (AI) safety summit, which is set to take place in France.

Bouverot has been asked to continue "ongoing international initiatives to contribute to an open and democratic global governance of AI".

The first such summit was organised by the UK in November last year in Bletchley Park, of World War II code-breaker fame. It resulted in the Bletchley Declaration, which was signed by 28 countries.

The declaration states that AI has the potential to "transform and enhance human wellbeing, peace and prosperity", but adds that it should be "designed, developed, deployed and used in a manner that is safe ... human-centric, trustworthy and responsible".

There has been much excitement over the development of artificial intelligence since OpenAI's ChatGPT arrived on the scene in late 2022, but the concerns over the potential harm the technology could cause have grown in parallel.

Disinformation

For example, the EU called on Facebook, TikTok and other tech giants on Tuesday this week to crack down on deepfakes and other AI-generated content by using clear labels ahead of Europe-wide polls in June.

Brussels especially fears the impact of Russian manipulation and disinformation on the elections, taking place in the bloc's 27 member states.

The committee has recommended that France invest €5 billion yearly over five years to keep up with the United States and China.


Read more on RFI English

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