Inès Leonarduzzi, CEO of Digital for the planet and Pierre-Alain Raphan, French MP, created the « IA for my people » collective, aiming to “give all citizens the chance to understand, master, use the tools relating to artificial intelligence “.
«We do not stop the sea with our arms», says the former Senegalese president Abdou Diouf.
This quote aptly illustrates the relationship between political institutions and technological change. And among all the challenges that will be ours, only one stands above the others: that of information, education and support for technological change. We do not go anywhere without taking people.
If artificial intelligence makes, without our suspicion, an integral part of our lives, the consulting company Gartner forecasts in 2020 an average of 6 connected objects per person (phones, watches, speakers, cars, clothes …). This technological revolution also has consequences for the way we inform ourselves and the way we make our decisions. Another study, led by Robert Epstein and Ronald Robertson, shows that prioritizing the results of a first search on search engines can change the voting intention for the same candidate from 37% to 63%.
We also know that this phenomenon will profoundly change our relationship to work. In a context where our unemployment rate is relatively high (8.7% of the active population), and in the midst of changes in the labor market due to technological developments, French support is essential. But artificial intelligence can also help the environment: Google’s DeepMind software can, for example, reduce the energy needed to cool its servers by 40%, which has a positive impact on the environment and the environment. the economy. Elsewhere, the United States aspires to be number one on transhumanism issues while for China, AI is a means of strengthened control of society. In Europe, starting with France, artificial intelligence can still become everything and its opposite.
If it is appropriate to think of it in an ethical way, it is necessary to define “the ethics of ethics”. And it’s up to citizens to beat it. This is why understanding the impacts of artificial intelligence must become a priority of public policies. According to our study French and French face AI, conducted with the office Occurrence, seven in ten French do not feel prepared for this revolution. That’s why we created the IA for my people collective, a project that has been in the works for several months, aimed at giving all citizens the chance to understand, master and use AI tools.
We wanted to carry out a project, composed of citizens, experts, politicians and companies, able to address everyone. Freely inspired by the French rap collective of the 2000s For my people, founded by the artist Kool Shen – musical trend characteristic of our generation – we wanted to make of one of the most evoked subjects, controversial and at the same time elitist and misunderstood , a fluid subject that current generations, young or old, master.
“Having the means to all take part in progress: this is what we think is, from a technological point of view, democracy”
If we can not predict the future, at least we will have the means to share in progress. That’s what we think is technologically, democracy. The study and understanding of AI should not only concern the experts and government work cells. It took us a long time to think about this project in the best possible way. The IA for my people initiative, approved by 75% of French respondents, also aims to prepare citizens for societal transitions and, as part of their business, make more accessible artificial intelligence training.
We often talk about experts and “illectrones”, those people who have little or no digital awareness. In the middle lies another forgotten population. We call them “dormant human potentials”, people who understand AI, read the press, form opinions, go to conferences but have no way of influencing how France invests. the subject. We sought to identify them. This population is essential to valorize, it is also essential to draw France technologically upwards: with ethics, transparency and economic attractiveness. It is crucial, in this context, to invest on all French human resources to affirm our position as actors on the subject.
In the coming weeks, we will publish a platform putting online the complete program and all the actions that will be carried out as well as the means to contact us and join us in this project. Our first responsibility is to make sure that this topic is no longer just for experts. It is up to the citizens to grasp it and to the political sphere to help us both to grasp the challenges of artificial intelligence but also to preserve the integrity of humans and their collective intelligence, without which no other viable intelligence is not possible.
Inès Leonarduzzi is CEO of Digital for the planet, member of the StatioNord 2024 strategic council and Young Franco-British leader at the Franco-British Diplomatic Council.
Pierre-Alain Raphan is French MP and doctor in human and social sciences.
