The challenge is to prevent algorithmic biases from becoming economic and political biases
Trustworthy AI is an AI of the Lumières: one that refuses to allow ideological biases — whether originating from a purely commercial Silicon Valley serving the interests of Web oligopolies, or from a China with authoritarian tendencies — to be translated into technological biases, with all the economic, societal and environmental consequences that this entails.
This is why it is essential to translate our values into global standards through the European regulatory framework — GDPR, DSA, DMA, DGA, Data Act and AI Act — which creates a trusted environment for the benefit of both citizens and businesses.
If Europe is to turn its excellence in AI research into genuine industrial leadership, regulation alone will not be enough. We must build European industrial cooperation commensurate with our ambitions. It is entirely possible to write this new chapter for French and European industry by 2030. France has already launched ambitious programmes, which this paper seeks to complement by strengthening their European dimension and maximising their impact.
The authors propose a method for achieving this: first, by making trustworthy AI the spearhead of a trusted ecosystem capable of safeguarding our strategic autonomy; and second, by building on Europe’s industrial expertise — particularly in critical systems — to seize this historic opportunity to compete for leadership in the global AI market.
Make trust in AI the global benchmark
- Establish trust de facto as a key criterion for market access.
- Make “AI” and “trustworthy AI” increasingly synonymous, recognising that all AI systems entail some degree of risk.
- Aim for leadership in trustworthy AI as a pathway to competing in the global AI market.
Finance a trustworthy AI InfraTech
- Strengthen the “start-up nation” by also becoming an “infrastructure nation”.
- Develop InfraTech as a scalability lever for the French and European tech ecosystem.
- Contain and compete with Big Tech through an intermediary software layer.
- Lower barriers to entry for trustworthy AI through Digital Commons.
Build common industrial governance for AI & Data
- Build on the “Grand Défi IA” programme by fully integrating the data dimension.
- Develop sovereign public-sector technical expertise in AI and data.
- Establish common governance for trusted digital technologies across AI and data.