France sees global A.I. regulation ideas by the end of this year, wants to work with U.S. on tech laws
PARIS — France’s top politicians told CNBC they see the beginnings of global regulation on artificial intelligence coming by the end of this year, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying the country wants to work with the U.S. on rules around the fast-growing technology.
The comments come as interest in AI, sparked by the rapid growth of chatbot ChatGPT, continues to rise and governments around the world debate how the technology should be regulated.
But there is no global consensus on how AI should be managed and controlled with the U.S., China and European Union taking different approaches to rules around the tech. Any global regulatory framework would be a huge feat.
France has looked to position itself as the European hub for AI development even as the European Union, of which France is a member, pushes forward with first-of-its kind regulation.
Macron, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Digital Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, all spoke to CNBC on Wednesday at the VivaTech conference in Paris, expressing a desire for global regulation on AI.
“From my point of view … I think we do need a regulation and all the players, even the U.S. players, agree with that. I think we need a global regulation,” Macron told CNBC’s Karen Tso on the sidelines of the event.
Barrot said that by the end of the year, “some of the core principles that we would like for the regulation of AI in G7 countries and like minded countries will start to emerge.”
The G7 includes countries such as France, Germany the U.S. and U.K. The countries agreed this year to set up a working group to look at issues that may arise from AI.
Macron said the G7 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which includes 38 countries, would be a “good platform” to develop global regulation.
Why now?
French concerns over EU A.I. law
France’s call for global AI regulation comes as the European Union closes in on passing an unprecedented law called the EU AI Act. The European Parliament on Wednesday approved the bloc’s landmark law, which looks to take a risk-based approach to regulating AI.
The latest amendments to the law include a tougher stance on so-called generative AI, the type of technology that underpins OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which allows systems to create images or respond in text to prompts. The regulation states generative AI developers will be required to submit their systems for review before releasing them commercially.
The law still needs approval from other EU bodies.
France, which has traditionally taken a pro-regulatory stance, has expressed concern that the EU law around AI has gone to far.
“My worry is that in the recent past few weeks, the EU Parliament … has taken a very sort of strong stance on AI regulation, using in some sense this AI act as a way to try and solve too many problems at once,” Barrot said on the provisions around generative AI.
U.S. rivalry and partnership in focus
Even as an EU-level law continues to work through the legislative process, France is pushing for regulations on a global scale and it sees the U.S. as a key ally.
“Competition is always a good thing. So we have a very close cooperation with the U.S. but we also want to get access to our own AI intelligence and companies,” Le Maire told CNBC on the sidelines of VivaTech.
“On regulation as well, I think this is absolutely vital to have an in-depth discussion with the American authorities on the best way of regulating artificial intelligence,” he added.
The U.S. has not yet come up with any kind of framework for AI regulation. But American companies are some of the most prominent in the space with OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT, as well as chipmaker Nvidia being the leaders in the space.
What do the French want in terms of regulation?
France’s top politicians who spoke to CNBC discussed their focus for AI regulation.
“We want to be sure that this is safe, unbiased … that the language models we have are not biased and that what is … forbidden in society is forbidden in this model. So we need some rules,” Macron said.
AI like ChatGPT is trained on huge amounts of data called large language models that allow it to understand human language and respond. But there are concerns that the data it is trained on could cause that system to inherit biases.
Macron also said that if you are watching a video or looking at a photo that has been created by AI, a user has a right to know.
Ultimately, French politicians are weighing up regulation that balances the need for protecting users of the technology without stifling innovation.
“What we want is a regulation that offers both protection for users … and that establishes trust, but that is also very flexible enough to allow for the development in the next few weeks, next few months in France and Europe,” Barrot said.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Snap stock surged 13% on Thursday after announcing a $400 million deal with Perplexity AI and releasing its third-quarter financial results.
The company said that it will be integrating Perplexity’s artificial intelligence-powered search engine directly into the Snapchat app.
As part of the agreement, Perplexity is set to pay the social media platform $400 million over one year “through a combination of cash and equity,” according to Snap’s letter to investors.
The social media company expects to start seeing revenue from the deal in 2026.
“Snap’s strategic partnership with Perplexity AI represents a meaningful step toward building out alternative revenue streams, as similar to Pinterest, large advertisers in the US seem to be pulling back from advertising on the platform,” Deutsche’s Benjamin Black said in a note Thursday.
Snap posted solid third-quarter results, reporting revenue of $1.51 billion, which beat LSEG estimates of $1.49 billion.
The company’s daily active users increased 8% year over year to 477 million, surpassing StreetAccount’s projection of 476 million.
Snapchat 3 month stock chart.
Cheng Xin | Getty Images
Duolingo‘s stock cratered 27% on lighter-than-expected guidance as the language learning platform zeroed in on user growth in lieu of near-term monetization.
“We have made a slight shift over the last quarter in how we invest, and we’re investing a lot more in long-term things because we see that as such a big opportunity ahead of us,” CEO and co-founder Luis von Ahn told CNBC’s Jon Fortt.
For the current quarter, Duolingo expects bookings to range between $329.5 million and $335.5 million, falling short of a $344.3 million estimate from FactSet. Adjusted EBITDA was forecasted to range between $75.4 million and $78.8 million, versus the $80.5 million expected.
Duolingo grew paid subscribers to 11.5 million and topped the 11.38 million expected by StreetAccount. But daily and monthly active users came up short at 50.5 million and 135.3 million, respectively. Analysts polled by StreetAccount had forecasted 51.2 million daily and 137.4 million monthly users.
Over the last several months, Duolingo has implemented a slew of new artificial intelligence tools, including an interactive video call feature to try and lure more paying subscribers. The company has also rolled out more language courses in record time with the help of AI.
“There are experiments that put monetization and user growth at odds, and part of my job has been, always, arbitrating between these two,” von Ahn told CNBC.
Over the last few months, he said the company has been “really shifting that trade off to be much more towards user growth.”
Duolingo’s revenues grew 41% during the quarter to $272 million, surpassing the $260 million estimate from analysts polled by LSEG. Total bookings jumped 33% year over year to about $282 million and also beat estimates.
Net income grew to $292.2 million, or $5.95 per share, up from $23.4 million, or 49 cents per share in the year-ago period. The company said net income was helped by a one-time tax income benefit of $222.7 million.
Duolingo also boosted its full-year revenue guidance to between $1.0275 billion and $1.0315 billion. That’s up from its previous guidance of $1.01 billion to $1.02 billion.
Duolingo one day stock chart.
Technology
Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Reynolds-backed password manager tops $400 million in ARR on AI tail winds
Ryan Reynolds (L), Scarlett Johansson (C), and Matthew McConaughy
Reuters
Cybersecurity startup 1Password, by Ryan Reynolds, Matthew McConaughey and Scarlett Johansson, has topped more than $400 million in annual recurring revenue, the company said Thursday.
“We believe we’re at a pretty significant inflection point in our journey,” CEO David Faugno told CNBC. “We’re set up for this next wave of disruption, which I think is an even bigger opportunity for us.”
Faugno said he expects the company to surpass a billion dollars in ARR over the next “several years,” benefiting from a shift in the threat landscape due to artificial intelligence and more complex protection needs.
In 2023, 1Password announced that it had surpassed $250 million in ARR.
AI innovation has accelerated demand for better cybersecurity tools to counteract sophisticated and complex cyberattacks. Big deals from Palo Alto Networks and Alphabet, and initial public offerings from Netskope and SailPoint have also put the sector in the spotlight.
Toronto-based 1Password was founded in 2005 and counts IBM, Perplexity AI, Salesforce and the Golden State Warriors among its customers, and it’s also signed a multiyear deal with Formula 1 team Oracle Red Bull Racing. The company says it secures more than 1.3 billion human and machine credentials and works with 180,000 business customers.
Additionally, 1Password on Thursday announced it is bringing on former ChargePoint and Barracuda Networks executive Michael Hughes. Former Qualtrics and SAP executive John Torrey will join as chief business officer.
Faugno said both executives complement the company’s strategy to lure larger enterprise customers.
Over the last year, 1Password has undergone a major C-suite shake-up.
Longtime leader Jeff Shiner, who ran 1Password for 13 years, transitioned into executive chair of the board in July. Faugno, who had been promoted to co-CEO a few months earlier, took over the role solely at that time. Faugno joined 1Password in 2023 as president and operating chief.
To date, 1Password has raised about $950 million and is valued at $6.8 billion, according to Pitchbook data. Other investors include actor Justin Timberlake, comedian Trevor Noah, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz and investment firm Iconiq, according to Pitchbook.
Faugno told CNBC that the company is weighing a possible IPO in 2026 or 2027, but isn’t “rushing out to go public.” He said 1Password remains focused on providing the best tools for its customers.
“We control our own destiny,” he said. “From a profitability perspective, we have investors that are playing the long game with us.”
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