France's Macron announces 1.5-bln-euro investment in artificial intelligence

France will dedicate 1.5 billion euros (1.85 billion US dollars) to developing artificial intelligence (AI) by 2022, President Emmanuel Macron announced here on Thursday. During a speech to the "artificial intelligence for humanity" conference, Macron presented strategies to develop new technology in order to make France one of the "world leaders" in AI. Mathematician and national assembly representative Cedric Villani said AI "concerns the whole society" and spoke of the "wake up call to France and Europe". The French president said: "We must not have fear or refuse change. We must neither be naive", in order to "define the route which will allow us to have a strategy for AI".