In woody surroundings south of the French capital, Paris-Saclay University’s campus provides a fertile training ground for future artificial intelligence experts, whose skills are coveted at home and abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But despite eye-watering salaries across the Atlantic for AI scientists and engineers, many students argue that the best place to study and work is not Silicon Valley, but Paris.<\/p>\n
“Being European and French, we have a certain perspective on things that differs from that of Americans and Chinese, which is more based on regulation and responsibility,” a master’s student, Mathis Pernin, said.<\/p>\n
“I enjoy working with this mindset,” Pernin, who would like to join a sports startup after graduation, added.<\/p>\n
Manon Arfib, a final-year AI student at the engineering school CentraleSupelec, also saw her future in France.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old believed it was important to “participate in AI’s huge rise in France” and hopes to join the research and development centre of a major energy and ecological transition group.<\/p>\n
Paris-Saclay, which encompasses several prestigious “grandes ecoles” and research centres, ranks second globally for mathematics, after Harvard, noted the university’s AI vice president, Frederic Pascal.<\/p>\n
“There are new job offers every week… (from) insurance companies, AI consulting firms, companies in Dubai”, a 23-year-old master’s graduate in mathematics, vision and learning, Eve Delegue, told AFP.<\/p>\n
– Building AI in France –<\/p>\n
The masters she studied has gained a reputation as the top route to a stellar career in AI.<\/p>\n
This ascent cannot be extricated from a geopolitical context that has seen Europe battling for relevance while other major powers jostle for supremacy in many areas, notably AI.<\/p>\n
A desire to keep talent on the continent is certainly at play, said Joelle Pineau, AI director at Cohere, a Canadian company specialising in AI for businesses.<\/p>\n
“Many people who would have considered moving to the United States in the past now prefer to build their careers in Europe,” she told AFP.<\/p>\n
France prides itself on being the third country in the world in terms of the number of expert AI researchers it has.<\/p>\n
Their talent stand out among the tech giants, with two French nationals holding prestigious titles in the sector: Yann LeCun is Meta’s Chief AI Scientist, and Joelle Barral is Research and Engineering Senior Director at Google DeepMind.<\/p>\n
Cohere has recently opened offices in Paris, and like the US startups Anthropic and OpenAI, it has set its sights on the French talent pool.<\/p>\n
Pineau, former vice president of AI research at Meta, hailed the French sector’s “exceptional” quality .<\/p>\n
– Competition and demand – \u00a0<\/p>\n
But recruitment still has its challenges.<\/p>\n
“As in any market, there is competition,” according to Charles de Freminville, human resources director at Mistral AI, another startup that recently raised 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion). The company is actively recruiting and is hoping to double in size to around 1,200 employees.<\/p>\n
“We receive several thousand applications per week,” said de Freminville, who believes Mistral attracts interest because it is “an independent European company” that is very “focused on science”.<\/p>\n
But for smaller companies like Gojob, a temporary recruitment specialist using AI solutions with a research laboratory in Aix-en-Provence, finding top-notch engineers can still prove difficult.<\/p>\n
“There is a clear talent shortage,” said Gojob CEO Pascal Lorne. “Schools are not producing enough talent to meet the demand.”<\/p>\n
Aware of growing needs, Paris-Saclay University, which counts 1,500 graduates with a master’s degree in AI each year, aims to double this number within five years.<\/p>\n
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