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 EU has unleashed a string of measures under its newly approved Digital Services Act (DSA) to clamp down on big tech – especially regarding content moderation.

Bouverot did her PhD in AI at the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) university, where she is also chairwoman of the board of directors.

She also co-chairs the 15-member Generative AI Committee, which was established on in September 2023 by then prime minister Elisabeth Borne.

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

France's summit will be proceeded by a mini virtual summit on AI to be hosted in May by South Korea, where the Bletchley Declaration and follow-up actions will be discussed.

Earlier this month the G7 – which includes the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada – said there were ongoing efforts to "advance and reinforce inter-operability between AI governance frameworks".

(with newswires)