OPINION. Without trustworthy, AI will remain an industrial mirage
OPINION. Trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI) is the key to the industrial (r)evolution. It is essential to unlock the full potential of AI-related innovation in our industries. Let’s open our eyes to France’s global leadership in this field and do everything we can to maintain our lead!
AI is on everyone’s lips. Already very fashionable, it was propelled back to the forefront three years ago with the emergence of generative AI.
A much less publicized issue is nevertheless key to enabling the adoption of AI on a large scale: trustworthy (1). It did not suddenly appear with European regulations. In reality, it has always existed and is all the more pressing when it comes to critical industrial systems.
Without trustworthy, AI will be everywhere… but certainly not in industry. No player will agree to market products integrating AI without a responsible approach. Whether it is transport, defense, energy or even health, the right to make mistakes does not exist. For example, it is impossible to imagine an aircraft manufacturer integrating an AI component into its aircraft whose total reliability it cannot guarantee.
Trustworthy AI to unlock the full potential of our industries
The Draghi report highlights a productivity gap between Europe and the United States (2). This is not surprising when we know that American competitiveness is mainly driven by tech players (GAFAM), and that of Europe by players in so-called traditional industries developing often critical products and services. We can therefore understand the challenge of creating digital champions in Europe, but we must also know how to play to our strengths.
Traditional industries cannot currently benefit from productivity gains from the AI solutions offered by GAFAM because they do not currently provide sufficient guarantees of safety and security. European industry must design and integrate its own AI solutions that provide all the guarantees of trustworthy to deploy new competitive innovative services. Indeed, the value of AI does not lie so much in the model or algorithm as in its integration into complex systems, products and services. And this is precisely where trustworthy is key.
Building strength from our differences
We, French industrialists, have understood this well. As early as 2019, 8 global industrialists (3) were pioneers by joining forces with the signing of a manifesto, and in 2020, 13 industrial and academic players launched the Confiance.ai program, which has just ended. In total, nearly 50 leading industrial players (including 15 start-ups) and academics have developed the state of the art in industrial and responsible AI, laid the foundations of a global ecosystem and positioned France as a leader on the subject.
Awareness of the strategic importance of trustworthy AI is becoming widespread around the world. We are ahead of the game, let’s take advantage of it! France has all the assets to maintain its leadership: let’s capitalize on our strengths to develop industrializable trustworthy solutions. It will then be possible to integrate all types of AI, including generative, into critical systems to create value and accelerate innovation.
Public and private stakeholders, let’s position trustworthy AI together at the heart of Europe’s industrial priorities!
This column was published exclusively by La Tribune on February 4, 2025
(1) Trustworthy AI is AI that is aligned with the objective, explainable, robust, responsible and compliant with regulations and standards.
(2) The future of European competitiveness
– Introduction: “The EU’s competitiveness will increasingly depend on the digitalization of all sectors and on building strengths in advanced technologies, which will drive investment, jobs and wealth creation.”
– Part A/ Chapter 2: “The key driver of the rising productivity gap between the EU and the US has been digital technology (“tech”) – and Europe currently looks set to fall further behind.”
(3) Air Liquide, Dassault Aviation, EDF, Renault, Safran, Thales, Total and Valeo signed the manifesto on July 3, 2019 and were then joined by Schlumberger, ST, Orange, Naval Group, Michelin and Saint Gobain Sources:
http://academie-technologies-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/2019/07/04/13/29/15/6808c`9-6807-4535- 8b38-23aa298766c1/Manifeste_IA_industrie.pdf
https://www.lembarque.com/article/edf-thales-et-total-ouvrir-un-laboratoire-industriel-commun-en-intelligence-artificielle
Signatories
L’ensemble des structures qui s’associent à cette tribune représente un puissant vivier de plus de 2200 experts en IA.
– Clodéric Mars, Vice-Président de l’ingénierie, AI Redifined
– Fabien Mangeant, Chief Data & AI OMicer, Air Liquide
– Davis Cortés, Président directeur général, AI-vidence
– Frédéric Feresin, Directeur général, AzurIA
– Emmanuel Arbaretier, Innovation leader, Airbus Protect
– Arno Pons, Directeur général, Digital New Deal
– Guillaume Poupard, Directeur general adjoint, Docaposte
– Pierre Nougue, Directeur général, Ecosys Group
– Alexandre Martinelli, Directeur general, La Javaness
– Michel-Marie Maudet, Directeur général, Linagora
– Sebastien Rousset, Chief AI OMicer, Naval Group
– Olivier Breillacq, Directeur général, Octopize
– Philippe Streiff, Délégué Général, Positive AI
– Vincent Lefieux, Responsable de la feuille de route IA, RTE
– Julien Chiaroni, Directeur général et fondateur, SafenAI
– Philippe Fiani, Directeur R&D, Sherpa Engineering
– Mohammed Sijelmassi, Chief Technology OMicer, Sopra Steria
– Paul Labrogère, Directeur général, IRT SystemX
– Juliette Mattioli, Senior Expert in Artificial Intelligence, Thales
– Stanislas Chesnais, Directeur général, Xpdeep