Publicis chief urges France, Germany to lead European AI fund

Publicis chairman Maurice Lévy called ​on France and Germany to lead a pan-European ​artificial intelligence fund, saying the bloc’s companies were ⁠too exposed to US providers that could cut ​access to advanced AI models without warning.

Speaking at VivaTech ​in Paris, Lévy said Europe needed a 100 billion euro ($115 billion) fund to back artificial intelligence across the continent, describing it ​as a response to what he said was ​the shock of seeing European companies lose access overnight to frontier ‌models ⁠from U.S. startup Anthropic.

“There is a need to create a fund at a European scale,” Lévy told Reuters in Paris. “It’s a bit like having someone with an ​on/off switch… ​who can ⁠flip it at will.”

Lévy said the idea was not new, pointing to past French ​and German efforts to deepen digital cooperation ​and ⁠to a later push he attributed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

He said Europe should treat ⁠artificial intelligence ​as a strategic priority because ​dependence on foreign providers could threaten companies’ competitiveness and, in some cases, ​their survival. Reuters