Artificial intelligence: France will spend 665 million Euros on national plan

Researcher, Institutions

Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and Mounir Mahjoubli, Secretary of State for digital issues, have just presented the pillars of the national strategy for research in artificial intelligence (AI) based on mathematician Cédric Villani’s report.

With 665 million Euros invested by 2022, France wants to confirm its place in the Top 5 of countries experts in artificial intelligence and turn into the European leader in this industry. Thanks to a strong tradition of research in mathematics, France is one of the leading countries in research in artificial intelligence.

According to the ministers who introduced the national strategy in AI, “the massive efforts we are deploying in research, training and innovation will allow us to secure our expertise at global level and draw the best talents”. In practical terms, the investments will follows several areas of focus.

The first idea is to deploy the national program for AI by granting its supervision to the INRIA, the French institute of research dedicated to digital science, to develop the environment of French artificial intelligence as a whole. Among other actions, the plan seeks to create 40 chairs in 2019, and to double the number of doctors trained in artificial intelligence.

The momentum will also translate in a renewal of the calculation methods with the creation of one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe built in 2019 in the calculation centre at CNRS, Saclay.

To implement all progress in AI, the national plan seeks to strengthen partnerships with the economic world, and bilateral, European and international cooperation, among other with Germany.