The Government of France has announced the formation of Current AI, a global public-private partnership intended to reshape the AI landscape by developing and supporting large-scale projects that serve the public interest.

The initiative was launched at the AI Action Summit in Paris with an initial investment of $400 million, led by France and a broad array of government and philanthropic partners, as well as tech industry powerhouses Google and Salesforce. Philanthropic backers include the Omidyar Group’s AI Collaborative, and the Ford, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, and Patrick J. McGovern foundations. Ahead of the summit, 10 governments—including France, Chile, Finland, Germany, and Nigeria—committed to supporting the initiative and promoting AI in the public interest. The partnership intends to raise $2.5 billion over the next five years; detailed commitments were not disclosed.

Current AI aims to expand global access to high-quality public and private datasets; invest in open-source tools and infrastructure to make AI more transparent and secure; and develop systems to measure AI’s social and environmental impact. To that end, the partnership will focus its efforts on leveraging AI in health care, linguistic diversity, and science, and addressing issues such as trust, safety, transparency, and accountability.

Through an open letter, the initiative has garnered support from tech industry heavyweights, including LinkedIn co-founder and Microsoft board member Reid Hoffman, Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, French-American AI platform Hugging Face co-founder Clement Delangue, French AI startup Mistral co-founder Arthur Mensch, Japan’s Sakani AI chief executive Ren Ito, and UK venture capitalist and Founders Forum CEO Brent Hoberman.

“We have a critical window to shape the future of artificial intelligence,” said Current AI founder Martin Tisné, who served as France’s special envoy for public interest at the summit and is the CEO of AI Collaborative. “AI has the power to transform access to jobs, healthcare, and education for the better, but only if we act now. By supporting innovation that benefits all, we can ensure AI serves the public good.”

“Current AI can change the world of AI,” said French president Emmanuel Macron. “By providing access to data, infrastructure, and computing power to a large number of partners, Current AI will contribute to developing our own AI ecosystems in France and Europe, diversifying the market, and fostering innovation worldwide in a fair and transparent way.”

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