 Welcome to the AI for Good Global Summit. It's day three and it's a real pleasure to have with me the I guess some are calling the father of the French involvement in AI. You're an advisor to the French government on AI It's Cedric Villani MP and of course, you've won prizes for mathematics, which I couldn't possibly understand But anyway, what brings you here? I've been involved indeed for the past couple of years in the French AI strategy in particular to help the assets of France in AI be promoted, be developed and also to help unite Europe in terms of AI development and strategy around goals and values. This is a very important international event to talk about AI in terms of values and goals and use not just the technique Technique is easy and we have some extraordinary good technique and experts in France like Yann Lecun or in Europe in general But the goals, the use, the development in society, that's what it's so important to advocate for Big business, small businesses, they can all do AI But how do you as a government or the state decide the regulations? I mean often aren't you running behind what the private sector is doing? First, it's so important to have the public and private sector work together in cooperation in this and decide what is on one side, what is on the other side. We strongly believe in France that when it comes to collecting the data, to preparing the common good that is data for AI, the state should be a major actor and when it comes to the exploitation and developing the new tools and inventions and applications and so on, the private actors should come on top of it. National platform like the one we're doing for the health data currently in France in which everybody can contribute according to certain rules and it's up to us to decide who is allowed, who is not allowed and along which rules and then let the invention and the development and the progress speak for itself. I know you're quite concerned about the geopolitics internationally and there's a lot of talk here for example about inclusion or social exclusion, getting Africa involved, getting the poorest four billion of the world having access to AI. What's your spin on that? First, AI carries a great risk of increasing inequalities. One minister of an Asian government once told me AI is the greatest in equalizer ever. That's our goal to make sure that this prediction does not come true and that it is served for equity, for inclusion, for bringing hope and goods for those who need it most and this is also in terms of development around the world. Right now America, China are putting amazing amounts of investment in this to the point that many portray this as a kind of new cold war at the economic level. I don't want a cold war and I want international effort in which people are coordinating and in which there are several centers. Big issue for Europe will be able to unite its strength and be an important center that can be a rival. So you want Europe to be a rival or do you want to why not say well bring in China, the United States all under the same umbrella with Europe? We need, we believe, I believe that it's healthy to have competition as soon as it's not too unbalanced and in this case AI is not just about technology it's about the society and we need to make sure there is a sovereignty that is guaranteed for the whole of Europe at a time in which it is searching for its identity and role around the world. Just one last thing. So access to the data of AI is power. Access to data is power absolutely and data organization is design and is politics and we strongly believe that the state cannot just let all the actors do whatever they want to get data. We believe in the importance of protecting individuals with the right to privacy and the right to know what is done with your data. But we also believe that data that is used for the development of progress should be considered the common good. AI for good is AI for good for everybody. And just the last question. You've been talking here. You've been seeing other actors, some of the most important in this field and around the world. What have you come away from this so far? It's a very brief time for you here. AI has turned in a few years or in a couple of decades, let's see, from a subject that was just for a happy few experts to a subject that is the talk of everybody. It has turned from a subject which was for scientists, for geeks, to a subject which is for really all kinds of fields and all kinds of specialties and that needs to talk about. AI is a subject that we should all talk about around the world in each of our respective capacities. That for me is the single most important take for the past couple of years that I worked on AI policy. So there's one other question I have to ask because of your mathematics background. Will AI create jobs or get rid of jobs? You know what's the true answer? Nobody knows. People think they have the solution to this. Many people tell but AI will destroy jobs, will modify jobs, will create jobs, will create new patterns. It's up to us and also it's up to, it depends on the interaction between technology and society. Human is such a complicated being and human societies are so complicated. Who knows how it will react? The best we can do is hang on to our values, observe what is going on, do experiments and be ready to react, to planify, to regulate. But who knows what will be the evolution of the job market with AI as a driver? Thank you. So that's Cedric Villani who's the go-to person in France for AI and I should just add at the same time he's running for mayor of Paris. That's right. Thank you.