France: "Hiatus" coalition calls for resistance against AI

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French President Emmanuel Macron will receive heads of state and government from all over the world, such as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the AI Action Summit in Paris on Monday and Tuesday. From the USA, Vice President JD Vance and the heads of OpenAI and Google, Sam Altman and Sundar Pichai, have also been announced. However, in the land of the Gauls, resistance is forming not only against the summit, but also against artificial intelligence (AI) in general: the newly founded coalition Hiatus has set itself the goal of "denouncing the subordination of public policy to the interests of the technology industry and the human and ecological costs of AI ".

Criticism of subordination to AI

The alliance brings together French civil and human rights organizations as well as trade unions such as La Quadrature du Net, Attac, Union syndicale Solidaires and La Ligue des droits de l'Homme. "The massive use of artificial intelligence has become a political priority," the alliance complains in its founding manifesto. "Following the rhetoric that has accompanied computerization for over half a century, AI is being attributed a revolutionary effect". This is linked to the idea that this technology will "inevitably be a vector of progress" by containing certain risks.

"The whole of society is called upon to adapt to this new industrial and technocratic buzzword," states Hiatus. AI will spread to all public administrations – but "at the cost of greater technological dependency". Everywhere in the private sector, managers are demanding that technology "optimizes" work. All citizens would be "pushed to use AI applications in the name of convenience and a pointless race for productivity".

AI causes disaster

Civil society representatives question this approach. They say it ignores the fact that "these innovations are made possible by a huge accumulation of data, capital and resources under the aegis of multinational technology corporations and the military-industrial complex". Hiatus points out that in order to be successful, AI requires "a multiplication of the power of computer chips and data centers, which ultimately amounts to an intensification of the extraction of raw materials and the use of water and energy resources".

AI is already having "disastrous consequences", says the coalition, focusing on the downsides. In practice, the technology is intensifying the exploitation of workers involved in the development and maintenance of the required infrastructure, particularly in the countries of the global South. Harmful effects on human rights and increased discrimination based on gender, class or race are often ignored. In addition, "the increasing delegation of important social functions to AI systems", for example in healthcare or education, is likely to have "serious anthropological, health and social consequences".

Subsidy policy is absurd

Hiatus criticizes that the EU has so far done little to counter this. The AI Regulation is "presented as effective regulation". In reality, however, it is primarily about "promoting a booming market". Added to this is the stale argument of geopolitical competition. The focus is on flooding the AI sector with public money so that Europe can keep up with the USA and China.

"This policy is absurd," says the declaration. It is unlikely that Europe will ever catch up here. Even more crucial: "AI is by no means the world-saving technology that its proponents claim." On the contrary, it accelerates ecological catastrophe, increases injustice and exacerbates the concentration of power. The technology is "increasingly being used for authoritarian and imperialist projects", is another point. The current paradigm "also prevents us from developing emancipatory policies that are in line with the ecological challenges".

Against the strategy of fait accompli, the alliance calls for genuine democratic control over AI and "a drastic limitation of its use so that human rights, social rights and environmental rights take precedence". It also announces: "In the coming months, we will try to translate this manifesto into concrete policy through joint actions." Meanwhile, the local IT association Bitkom warns that Germany must see the summit's motto as a mission, take action and enable more innovation with AI.

(mho)