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.
Technology
Nvidia positioned to weather Trump tariffs, chip demand ‘off the charts,’ says Altimeter’s Gerstner
Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner said Thursday that he’s moving out of the “bomb shelter” with Nvidia and into a position of safety, expecting that the chipmaker is positioned to withstand President Donald Trump’s widespread tariffs.
“The growth and the demand for GPUs is off the charts,” he told CNBC’s “Fast Money Halftime Report,” referring to Nvidia’s graphics processing units that are powering the artificial intelligence boom. He said investors just need to listen to commentary from OpenAI, Google and Elon Musk.
President Trump announced an expansive and aggressive “reciprocal tariff” policy in a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday. The plan established a 10% baseline tariff, though many countries like China, Vietnam and Taiwan are subject to steeper rates. The announcement sent stocks tumbling on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq down more than 5%, headed for its worst day since 2022.
The big reason Nvidia may be better positioned to withstand Trump’s tariff hikes is because semiconductors are on the list of exceptions, which Gerstner called a “wise exception” due to the importance of AI.
Nvidia’s business has exploded since the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, and annual revenue has more than doubled in each of the past two fiscal years. After a massive rally, Nvidia’s stock price has dropped by more than 20% this year and was down almost 7% on Thursday.
Gerstner is concerned about the potential of a recession due to the tariffs, but is relatively bullish on Nvidia, and said the “negative impact from tariffs will be much less than in other areas.”
He said it’s key for the U.S. to stay competitive in AI. And while the company’s chips are designed domestically, they’re manufactured in Taiwan “because they can’t be fabricated in the U.S.” Higher tariffs would punish companies like Meta and Microsoft, he said.
“We’re in a global race in AI,” Gerstner said. “We can’t hamper our ability to win that race.”
Jaque Silva | Nurphoto | Getty Images
YouTube on Thursday announced new video creation tools for Shorts, its short-form video feed that competes against TikTok.
The features come at a time when TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is at risk of an effective ban in the U.S. if it’s not sold to an American owner by April 5.
Among the new tools is an updated video editor that allows creators to make precise adjustments and edits, a feature that automatically syncs video cuts to the beat of a song and AI stickers.
The creator tools will become available later this spring, said YouTube, which is owned by Google.
Along with the new features, YouTube last week said it was changing the way view counts are tabulated on Shorts. Under the new guidelines, Shorts views will count the number of times the video is played or replayed with no minimum watch time requirement.
Previously, views were only counted if a video was played for a certain number of seconds. This new tabulation method is similar to how views are counted on TikTok and Meta’s Reels, and will likely inflate view counts.
“We got this feedback from creators that this is what they wanted. It’s a way for them to better understand when their Shorts have been seen,” YouTube Chief Product Officer Johanna Voolich said in a YouTube video. “It’s useful for creators who post across multiple platforms.”
WATCH: TikTok is a digital Trojan horse, says Hayman Capital’s Kyle Bass
CEO of Meta and Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk attend the inauguration ceremony before Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th U.S. president in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025.
Saul Loeb | Via Reuters
Technology stocks plummeted Thursday after President Donald Trump’s new tariff policies sparked widespread market panic.
Apple led the declines among the so-called “Magnificent Seven” group, dropping nearly 9%. The iPhone maker makes its devices in China and other Asian countries. The stock is on pace for its steepest drop since 2020.
Other megacaps also felt the pressure. Meta Platforms and Amazon fell more than 7% each, while Nvidia and Tesla slumped more than 5%. Nvidia builds its new chips in Taiwan and relies on Mexico for assembling its artificial intelligence systems. Microsoft and Alphabet both fell about 2%.
Semiconductor stocks also felt the pain, with Marvell Technology, Arm Holdings and Micron Technology falling more than 8% each. Broadcom and Lam Research dropped 6%, while Advanced Micro Devices declined more than 4% Software stocks ServiceNow and Fortinet fell more than 5% each.
The drop in technology stocks came amid a broader market selloff spurred by fears of a global trade war after Trump unveiled a blanket 10% tariff on all imported goods and a range of higher duties targeting specific countries after the bell Wednesday. He said the new tariffs would be a “declaration of economic independence” for the U.S.
Companies and countries worldwide have already begun responding to the wide-sweeping policy, which included a 34% tariff on China stacked on a previous 20% tax, a 46% duty on Vietnam and a 20% levy on imports from the European Union.
China’s Ministry of Commerce urged the U.S. to “immediately cancel” the unilateral tariff measures and said it would take “resolute counter-measures.”
The tariffs come on the heels of a rough quarter for the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the worst period for the index since 2022. Stocks across the board have come under pressure over concerns of a weakening U.S. economy. The Nasdaq Composite dropped nearly 5% on Thursday, bringing its year-to-date loss to 13%.
Trump applauded some megacap technology companies for investing money into the U.S. during his speech, calling attention to Apple’s plan to spend $500 billion over the next four years.
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