French President Emmanuel Macron has set his sights on artificial intelligence as the next technological frontier France cannot afford to miss, and will launch a major “offensive” this week, officials said on Monday.

Macron, the 40-year-old who swept to power last May promising to transform France into a “start-up nation”, wants to avoid seeing France and Europe fall behind Chinese and U.S. giants such as Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and Alibaba in this area.

“France missed the boat of all the latest technological revolutions: robotics, the internet. We have no giants in these fields,” a presidential adviser said.

“We will do what it takes to move to pole position.”

The officials, who were speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to give more details on the announcements expected on Thursday, when Macron will speak at the elite College de France research center.

They said France would invest funds “commensurate with what is at stake”: “This is a technology whose control will give a clear economic advantage to the top ones,” the adviser said, describing the global context as an accelerating “arms race”.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the field of computer science that focuses on the creation of machines able to perceive their environment and make logical decisions.

Masaim Abdulalyev,

“Khalq qazeti”