France is using its G7 presidency to launch an international call for scientific contributions focused on the risks and vulnerabilities generated by general public uses of generative artificial intelligence with respect to minors. Anne Le Hénanff, minister delegate for artificial intelligence and digital affairs, announced the initiative in New Delhi during the “Protecting Children in the Age of AI” event held on Wednesday, 18 February under the French presidency of the G7, on the margins of the India AI Impact Summit. The move is presented as part of France’s broader ambition to strengthen the protection of children online and to mobilize international action around the new challenges created by generative artificial intelligence.
The panel at the event was organized by Clara Chappaz, ambassador for digital affairs and artificial intelligence, and brought together Amit A Shukla, joint secretary of cyber diplomacy and e-governance at the Indian ministry of external affairs, Frédéric Worms, director of the École Normale Supérieure de Paris, Gaurav Aggrawal, chief artificial intelligence scientist at Reliance Jio and chair of EEG ISPIR, and Adrien Abecassis, policy initiatives director at the Paris Peace Forum. Their discussions examined emerging issues linked to generative artificial intelligence available to the general public, including the responsibilities of creators and platforms, the role of foundations and their tools, and the need for common norms and regulation for artificial intelligence. A central objective of the event was to ensure that the protection of minors online is fully integrated into global debates on generative artificial intelligence used by and for children.
Addressing participants from government, civil society, business and research, Anne Le Hénanff highlighted recent French steps such as the national assembly’s passing of legislation to ban the access to social media for children under 15 and President Macron’s plan to establish an expert committee on the risks and vulnerabilities generated by general public uses of generative artificial intelligence. The new call for international scientific contributions is intended to supply work and data for this expert committee, which will use the input to support scientific reflection and to formulate concrete recommendations, with conclusions to be shared under the French presidency of the G7. Anne Le Hénanff stressed that the initiative aims to assess risks and draft recommendations for better regulation, while Clara Chappaz underlined that the spread of generative artificial intelligence chatbots is changing the nature, scale and paradigm of risks for children and that France is convening international expertise to build solid science based recommendations to protect the most vulnerable users online.
