France’s Macron Had His Immigration Bill Harshly Rejected in Parliament, so He Lectures the World on ‘AI Innovation’

 

Macron can’t do the basic, but keeps trying to do something ‘historical’.

The last movements by French President Emmanuel Macron encapsulate everything that is wrong with his contentious rule: while incapable of delivering the simple basics, he engages in ever more ambitious endeavors, often with negligible results. 

Case in point: Macron was harshly defeated in Parliament as his proposal to tackle the hard immigration crisis affecting France wasn’t even debated – so he changed – or tried to change – the subject of the conversation to his rejection of the new European AI regulations.

 

Associated Press reported:

“French opposition lawmakers on Monday rejected an immigration bill without debating it, in a major blow to President Emmanuel Macron’s government, which had championed the proposed law as one of its flagship measures.” 

Right now, Macron has to decide whether to keep pushing for the adoption of the bill, or withdraw it.

“Members of all opposition groups on the left and on the right voted a motion providing that the measure be rejected ahead of any debate at the National Assembly. The motion was adopted by 270 votes against 265.

Speaking on national television TF1, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who championed the bill for months, suggested he won’t withdraw it. ‘This text will continue its path in line with the Constitution’, he said, adding that a decision would soon be made by the government on the next step. He said he offered to resign after Monday’s vote but Macron refused.”

Macron managed to unite left and right with his bill – unite against him, that is!

Both conservative Marine Le Pen and her National Rally and Mathilde Panot, president of the hard-left ‘Rebel France’ group rejected the legislation, for different and opposed reasons. 

So, Macron shed yet another defeat and went on to lecture Europeans – and the world – on the importance of AI innovation.

Macron warned that the landmark EU legislation to tackle the development of artificial intelligence carries the risk of hindering European tech companies in the competition with rivals in the US, UK or China.

Financial Times reported:

“Addressing an audience in Toulouse on Monday, the French president attacked the new Artificial Intelligence Act agreed last Friday, saying: ‘We can decide to regulate much faster and much stronger than our major competitors. But we will regulate things that we will no longer produce or invent. This is never a good idea’.

Macron said he was concerned that the new law means the EU will enforce the world’s toughest regime on so-called foundational models.

[…] Macron added: ‘When I look at France, it is probably the first country in terms of artificial intelligence in continental Europe. We are neck and neck with the British. They will not have this regulation on foundational models. But above all, we are all very far behind the Chinese and the Americans’.” 

French negotiators had tried to water down the proposed rules, but EU chose a tough regulatory regime with transparency requirements, restrictions on the use of facial-recognition technology or the use of AI for ‘social scoring’.