India, France working together on Artificial Intelligence: French envoy

Émilie de Montchalin, Permanent Representative of France to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said India and France are working together as the two countries share a common vision of what artificial intelligence (AI) can bring as a tool for greater growth, innovation and prosperity.

Speaking to ANI, Émilie de Montchalin said that France and India have similar digital public infrastructure.

When asked about the role of India and France in AI, Montchalin said, “So, India and France are really working together because we have the same vision of what AI can bring as a tool for greater growth, as a tool for innovation, as a tool for prosperity. But, we also have similar values.”

“We want to maintain our sovereign autonomy to make sure we have control over our technologies. We have the same approach to cyber. So, the fact that we work together is also a signal that we want to make sure that AI is in the service of all people across the planet, so that there is no division between the North and the South,” he/she said.

When asked if there have been any discussions between the two countries in the context of AI, Émilie de Montchalin said, “As you know, France and India have some commonalities, which is digital public infrastructure. I was in charge of the civil service reform and I was in charge of digital public services in France. And they are very close to what you do in India with your very successful digital public infrastructure and their thinking is very similar. So we will continue to work together on this.”

She said, “We are also discussing as part of the global partnership on AI how to use AI for good, open AI solutions to combat climate change, agriculture, smart cities, water resources and making sure that these algorithms are free and open not only for India and France but also for other developing and emerging countries and I know India wants to do even more in this direction and France will support it and we will work on it together.”

he/she praised India for organising the ‘Global India AI Summit’ and called it a “huge success”. he/she said the conference in Delhi is a follow-up to the G20 Summit to be held in Delhi in 2023. The French Ambassador also spoke about the AI ​​Action Summit to be held in February 2025 and said India would be invited to this summit.

Speaking about India’s role in promoting AI, Montchalin said, “So I think this conference held in Delhi today, this ministerial meeting of the Global Partnership on AI is a great success. I think it is also a follow-up to your G20. I should say that what happened between the ministers today was something that President Macron and Prime Minister Modi have discussed in Delhi in September 2023.”

“So, in less than a year, we are seeing results and outcomes and the new dynamics of this grouping is now connecting more than 40 countries from the North, from the South, from the East, from the West, from around the planet to work together. And we will be holding the AI ​​Action Summit in Paris in February 2025, with India invited, where we will continue to work closely together. And for me, this is a really good place to be today because the vision we have is one that, for me, will bring success for our people, the planet and innovation,” he/she said.

The ‘Global India AI Summit’ is being held on July 3-4 in New Delhi. According to the official statement, the summit will focus on the key pillars of the AI ​​ecosystem, including compute capacity, foundational models, datasets, application development, future skills, startup financing, and safe and reliable AI.