Will or will not leave the European Union? Passing through Paris on Friday, the boss of OpenAI and creator of ChatGPT, the American Sam Altman, assured that he did not intend to stop operating in Europe but called on the EU to strike a “fair balance” between protection and innovation.
During a discussion on artificial intelligence and the future of media at Station F, a start-up incubator, the 38-year-old leader explained that he discussed how to find “the right balance between protection and positive impact of this technology with President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday. “We plan to comply” with the future European regulation on AI (IA Act) and “we really like Europe” but “we want to make sure that we are technically capable of it”, he said.
“An authorization regime for the general framework and security standards are very relevant,” he continued. “But to say, when you don’t know how generative AI works, ‘you have to meet this guarantee 100% of the time’, honestly, we don’t know how to do that.”
appeasement
On Wednesday, during the London leg of his international tour to reassure about fears linked to AI (disinformation, destruction of jobs, looting of works, etc.), Sam Altman had threatened to leave the EU if the regulation there became too restrictive, triggering the anger of European Commissioner Thierry Breton who cried out for “blackmail”. Friday morning, the creator of ChatGPT sought appeasement. “Very productive week of conversations in Europe on how best to regulate AI! We are delighted to continue operating here and of course have no intention of leaving,” he tweeted.
In the afternoon, he praised the reception of France, “a very interesting case, much more advanced in this technology and in its adoption than other countries”, he launched, in front of an audience comprising many representatives of start-ups. However, he refrained from saying whether he intended to set up a headquarters in the country or elsewhere in Europe: “We will open headquarters around the world but very slowly, we are still a small company”.