Xavier Niel, owner of the Iliad technology group, announced to AFP on Tuesday “strategic investments” in artificial intelligence (AI), estimated at “about 200 million euros”, in particular through the purchase of a supercomputer and the creation of a laboratory specific research.
These investments, which aim to create “a European AI champion” capable of offering a wide range of services to companies wishing to develop their own applications in this field, come at a time when Europe is so far surpassed in largely by the United States. in the race for artificial intelligence, such as the billions of dollars spent by the American giants Google, Microsoft and Meta.
nvidia supercomputer
“We really need that, to make sure that things leave here, (…) so that all our data does not go somewhere else, so that AI does not depend on algorithms that are not created here and that are not European” , he explained.
To achieve this goal, Iliad acquired a supercomputer from Nvidia, the American processor giant, to provide Scaleway, its cloud computing service provider subsidiary, with “the greatest computing power” on the continent.
Iliad also revealed on Tuesday the creation of a research laboratory of excellence in AI in Paris, already endowed with “more than 100 million euros”, with the mission of building and democratizing “artificial general intelligence.”
First European conference on AI
Although the company does not reveal the names of the research team, it claims to have already formed a group of researchers “internationally recognized” for their experience in the field, and that they have already worked “for about ten years within the largest international players.” “. in the market.
Iliad will also organize its first European conference on AI, which aims to become “the benchmark annual event” on this topic in Europe.
The first edition will take place on November 17 at Station F, the world’s largest startup incubator in Paris, founded in 2017 by Xavier Niel.
Source: BFM TV
