As France prepares for Thursday’s release of a government report on artificial intelligence, The Verge has profiled Cédric Villani, the champion behind the report and France’s most beloved mathematician. Dubbed “the Lady Gaga of mathematics,” Villani’s spider brooch-featuring style and Fields Medal-winning work has turned him into a celebrity. Now a legislative representative, Villani led the task force on AI that will present its wide-ranging findings to President Macron March 29. The report bears particular heft, given the popular concern that France, and Europe more generally, has fallen behind in the development and implementation of artificial intelligence. The task force spoke with roughly 350 people over the course of the project, and the report is apparently holistic, approaching the issue from tech, economic, and ethical perspectives, to name just a few. There’s no measuring the impact that Villani’s report could ultimately yield.
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