France prides itself on being the third country in the world in terms of the number of expert AI researchers it has – Copyright AFP CHARLY TRIBALLEAU<\/p>\n
Daxia ROJAS<\/p>\n
In woody surroundings south of the French capital, Paris-Saclay University\u2019s 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
\u201cBeing 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,\u201d a master\u2019s student, Mathis Pernin, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI enjoy working with this mindset,\u201d 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 \u201cparticipate in AI\u2019s huge rise in France\u201d 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 \u201cgrandes ecoles\u201d and research centres, ranks second globally for mathematics, after Harvard, noted the university\u2019s AI vice president, Frederic Pascal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are new job offers every week\u2026 (from) insurance companies, AI consulting firms, companies in Dubai\u201d, a 23-year-old master\u2019s graduate in mathematics, vision and learning, Eve Delegue, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Building AI in France \u2013<\/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
\u201cMany people who would have considered moving to the United States in the past now prefer to build their careers in Europe,\u201d 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\u2019s 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\u2019s \u201cexceptional\u201d quality .<\/p>\n
\u2013 Competition and demand \u2013 \u00a0<\/p>\n
But recruitment still has its challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs in any market, there is competition,\u201d 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
\u201cWe receive several thousand applications per week,\u201d said de Freminville, who believes Mistral attracts interest because it is \u201can independent European company\u201d that is very \u201cfocused on science\u201d.<\/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
\u201cThere is a clear talent shortage,\u201d said Gojob CEO Pascal Lorne. \u201cSchools are not producing enough talent to meet the demand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aware of growing needs, Paris-Saclay University, which counts 1,500 graduates with a master\u2019s degree in AI each year, aims to double this number within five years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France prides itself on being the third country in the world in terms of the number of expert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[323,51,2266,2000,299,36,15065],"class_list":{"0":"post-521076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-students"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115421121345100772","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}