        Élysée Palace · AI for Humanity Summit · 28 March 2018
      

Élysée · Paris Présidence de la République

The Night France Chose AI for Humanity

Dinner with President Macron & the world’s AI leaders — on the eve of France’s national AI strategy.

Guest of President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace, as one of the three co-initiators of AI4Humanity — at a table of fifteen with Yann LeCun, Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis, Fei-Fei Li, Stuart Russell, Kate Crawford and Cédric Villani, the night before the strategy was announced at the Collège de France.

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Gregory Renard with President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace

SALON DES AMBASSADEURS · ÉLYSÉE · 28 MAR 2018

From a coffee at Stanford to a table of fifteen at the Élysée — a national ambition set in motion.

Where it started

From a Stanford coffee to the President’s table.

In October 2016, over a coffee at Stanford with François Levin and Yann Bonnet, a sincere conversation set an idea in motion: France needed a national ambition for AI. Eighteen months later — through the France IA strategy (2017) and the Villani report (2018) — that idea had a name, AI4Humanity, and a seat at the President’s table: a dinner of fifteen at the Élysée, the night before the strategy was announced to the world.

Gregory Renard, François Levin and Yann Bonnet at Stanford, October 2016

Stanford, 24 Oct 2016 — with François Levin & Yann Bonnet. The coffee that seeded AI4Humanity.

The evening, in four beats

One table, fifteen guests. The future of AI in France.

01 The dinner

Hosted by the President

On 28 March 2018, President Emmanuel Macron gathered the world’s AI leaders in the Salon des Ambassadeurs — the eve of the AI for Humanity summit. The protocol seated me among Yann LeCun, Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis, Fei-Fei Li, Stuart Russell, Kate Crawford, Latanya Sweeney and Cédric Villani.

02 Why I was there

One of the three co-initiators

AI4Humanity grew from the conversation started at Stanford in 2016. As one of its three co-initiators — and co-founder of Xbrain, building conversational AI in Silicon Valley since 2012 — I brought the practitioner’s view to the table.

03 The strategy

France’s national AI plan

The next day, at the Collège de France, the President announced “AI for Humanity” — €1.5B for research, talent and ethics, anchored in the France IA strategy (2017) and the Villani report. It set the template for Europe’s approach to AI.

04 The throughline

From humanity to children

The same conviction has carried the work since: reserve member of the EU’s High-Level Expert Group on AI, co-author of the Holberton-Turing Oath — and today, beneficial AI for children, from the UN’s AI for Good stage to the WEF’s Digital Safety coalition.