THE COMING TIDE With governments investing hundreds of billions in artificial intelligence (AI) in the face of ChatGPT’s unprecedented success and market lead, Audencia dean Sébastien Tran argues that the ensuing ‘arms race’ presents a pivotal issue of sovereignty and international competition
T he hype surrounding AI suggests that we are facing a new disruptive innovation akin to the internet and world wide web in the mid-1990s. Some people, such as world-renowned AI researcher Yann LeCun, have no hesitation in likening AI to a veritable revolution, drawing parallels with the invention of the printing press. The potential of AI is immense and many studies, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2023 compilation of working papers in The impact of AI on the workplace , are converging to envisage profound changes in a wide range of professions and sectors. Although research differs as to the precise impact of AI on businesses, they agree on several points, including “AI is seen as one of the major components of the fourth industrial revolution that will change our world”
countries such as the US, currently number one in AI investment. The world’s second-biggest investor in AI is China, followed by the UK, ahead of other European counterparts, according to the Stanford Institute’s AI Index. Over the past decade, it is estimated that around $250 billion has been invested in AI start‑ups worldwide.
THE WINNER TAKES ALL?
We could certainly draw a parallel between the
substantial time savings on basic, recurring tasks with low added value. The economic and sovereignty stakes are such that there is also now a real ‘arms race’ for AI between nations. AI is seen as one of the major components of the fourth industrial revolution that will change our world. It is getting huge attention because of its potential for growth, but it is also seen as something of a scarecrow, with those missing out risking economic decline. In 2022, AI start-ups in France received €1.5 billion in public funding to develop new products and services. But this is a mere drop in the ocean compared with investments by other
development of AI and the development of web browsing. In the 1990s, the first directories were created to help people find information online, such as Yahoo!, Lycos and AltaVista. Initially, these were manually curated by humans, before developing into search engines that used machine learning. ‘Archie’, created by Alan Emtage in 1990, was the first true search engine. Google, created in 1997, has since become the undisputed leader in this field, transforming the way people search for information thanks to its PageRank algorithm that orders pages according to their relevance and incoming links. The company has continued to innovate and diversify, to
38 Business Impact • ISSUE 2 • 2024
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