France appoints its first AI minister amid political unrest

France has named its first-ever artificial intelligence (AI) minister amid a political shake-up and as the country manoeuvres itself to become a global leader in the technology. 

Clara Chappaz, the CEO of the government’s start-up body La French Tech, will take up the role of Secretary of State for AI and Digitalisation.

“I am delighted to continue my commitment to public action on these major subjects of digital and artificial intelligence,” she said in a LinkedIn post on Sunday. 

The position did not previously include AI in the title and highlights France’s ambition to lead in the technology and meet President Emmanuel Macron’s ambition to turn Paris into the “city of AI”.

Since US company OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, France has propagated its own generative AI (GenAI) rivals, such as Mistral AI and H. 

France will also host the International AI Summit in February, following the previous two in the United Kingdom and Seoul. 

Last year, France published a national AI strategy with €500 million to be invested in the creation of AI clusters by 2030.

Harvard alumnus and gender equality champion

Between the dissolution of France’s National Assembly in early June and the eventual appointment of Michel Barnier as prime minister earlier this month, the tech ecosystem has largely been left in a state of limbo as to who would be the next digital minister. 

Chappaz, 35, will report to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research instead of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, which was the case with her predecessor.

She has an impressive record while being the director of La French Tech and in her three-year tenure, she created an optional parity pact which has been signed by over 700 start-ups to date. 

It imposes a minimum quota of 20 per cent of women on boards of directors by 2025 and requires all managers to be trained in diversity issues and the fight against discrimination and harassment.

Prior to her appointment at La French Tech, she was the chief business officer for the luxury second-hand clothing website Vestiaire Collective and also created a second-hand children’s clothing marketplace, Lullaby. She is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School.