At Cigref ‘s AGM 2024 on 16 October, Gilles Grapinet, former CEO of WORLDLINE, shared his convictions with a roomful of CIOs about the need to avoid falling head over heels for proprietary AI giants such as OpenAI or Microsoft's Copilote, and to consider Open Source LLM solutions.

" Open Source AI has reached a certain maturity. Yes, of course, it's a different model, it requires a different kind of ecosystem, but it works, and Europeans have not been bad at Open Source for a long time. "Continuation of selected pieces as if you were there...

" [...] office automation, the Word processor, Excel, PowerPoint, then the corporate communications system, and we're only increasing our dependence... Then comes AI, and as if by chance, obviously, our choice is, do I take Copilot, or do we take the Google variant, etc.

[...] There are also local alternatives that can be revisited at times of technological disruption. AI is a breakthrough. There's also Open Source in AI. You don't immediately have to go down the traditional contractual route, and from what I've seen, Open Source AI has reached a certain maturity. Yes, of course, it's a different model, it requires a different kind of ecosystem, but it works, and Europeans haven't been bad at Open Source for a long time.

[...] There's no such thing as a losing battle!

LUCIE is the 100% Open Source LLM model currently being developed by the OpenLLM France community.

OpenLLM France is the largest French-speaking research and innovation community in the field of AI.

• Created in June 2023 under the impetus of LINAGORA, OpenLLM France has rapidly established itself as the largest French-speaking community dedicated to generative AI ;
• Its main objective is to bring together the key players in the field to develop a French, sovereign and truly open source language model (LLM);
• Truly open source AI rests on three fundamental pillars:

1. public and open learning data repositories ;
2. documented algorithms to ensure that they are easy to understand;
3. a free and non-restrictive licence;

• OpenLLM is also targeting the European level. The aim is to federate other national initiatives with a view to creating sovereign European models aimed at the general common interest, respectful of our regulations, our values and our European culture.
• This European ambition underlines the desire to create a continental synergy in the field of generative AI, strengthening Europe's position as a major and ethical player in this crucial field.

• In September 2024, the community will have more than 800 engineers and researchers, demonstrating its dynamism and attractiveness.

   

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