POLITICO guides you through the essential events of this year’s Paris Artificial Intelligence Action Summit.
PARIS — Artificial intelligence watchers are embarking on a Paris city trip next week, and it’s going to be intense.
The French government is hosting its AI Action Summit at the Grand Palais in central Paris on Feb. 10-11. There are more than 100 official events and dozens more unofficial ones organized by companies and campaigners, all across town, and all to tout the booming technology.
POLITICO has put together a quick survival guide to navigate the summit.
To do business
See you at Station F! On Feb. 11, this startup campus hosts a « business day. » On the same day, the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry has a debate on the potential of AI as a « growth lever » for businesses.
Several companies will be holding open days. One that catches the eye: the Thales Digital Factory on Feb. 11 will showcase work from its 600 AI researchers and engineers such as a swarm of semi-autonomous drones for the army, a facial recognition system for airports and a system to help neutralize intruder drones deployed during the Paris Olympics.
To rack your brains
Global governance of AI will be discussed at length and in depth at the OECD on Feb. 9 and at the International Chamber of Commerce and Renaissance numérique on Feb. 11. The Council of Europe office, the Agence Française de Développement and the Centre for Policy and Governance Research (CPRG) will be looking at the role of developing countries.
Interested in the military uses of AI? Don’t miss theevent organized by the Ministry of Defence on Feb. 10 at the Ecole Militaire.
To overcome your fears
If you’re worried about the future,you can head to the OECD on Feb. 6 and 7 for a conference on »safe and ethical » AI. Or to the Hôtel de la Marine, on Feb. 11, to discover the range of risk management solutions with experts from the Paris Appeal for Trust and Security in Cyberspace.
For more practical tips, check out a cyber crisis exercise organized by ANSSI at the Cyber Campus on Feb. 11.
Worried about robots stealing our jobs? The future of work will be debated on Feb. 7 at the Cercle de l’Union Interalliée with French Labour Minister Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet.
For cleaner, truer AI
France’s Viginum digital interference service is organizing an afternoon on protecting the integrity of information in AI. The agency has a report on the subject and a prototype artificial content detector. The event will take place at the Prime Minister’s office on Feb. 11.
The ecologically minded are invited to the Ministry of Ecological Transition on Feb. 11 for a « sustainable AI forum » to debate the environmental impact of the data centers. A « frugal AI challenge » will also be organized there, in partnership with Hugging Face, to try and make AI models leaner.
Finally, the role of the citizen will be the topic of a Feb. 11 debate at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, followed by Sciences Po, which will hold a tribunal for future generations. The Conseil national du numérique will also be looking at the role of citizens in the development of AI at a roundtable at the Palais d’Iéna.
Putting the AI in party
It’s not all hard work. The closing night of the cultural weekend at the Culture Ministry on Feb. 9 will have musician DeLaurentis and DJ Barbara Butch spinning some tunes.
The Canadian Embassy will host a warm-up summit reception organized by the French digital industries’ alliance.
For the networkers, the go-to event will be the opening evening of the summit, organized by Make.org, at the Maison de la Chimie on Feb. 10.
To wrap it all up there’s the AI Action Summit Party, sponsored by OpenAI, Hugging Face and H Company, that takes place at Station F on Feb. 11.
