France warns against killing a European wildcat

France’s Digital Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has warned against the European Parliament’s proposed Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act legislation and its potentially stringent regulatory position. Barrot noted that Europe should avoid knee-capping its potential future European ChatGPT by passing too much regulation. Instead, the focus should be on creating European AI models as opposed to non-European models, said Barrot. Additionally, France aims to create homegrown companies and compete with companies like Google and OpenAI. The goal is to find a middle ground between regulation and innovation, a stance supported by French President Emmanuel Macron. Barrot argued that the AI Act could not solve all issues raised by AI, such as privacy and intellectual property rights. The G7 countries decided to launch a working group on generative AI to focus on governance, transparency, copyright, and response to foreign information manipulation earlier this year.