French AI Founders Warn of Sovereignty Crisis

France's day was anchored less by an event than by an argument: that on artificial intelligence, the country and the European Union together are not building what they need. Speaking with Le Monde, Dust cofounder Gabriel Hubert said the conditions for long-term European sovereignty in AI "are not in place at this stage", warning that without low-cost, low-carbon and secure sovereign solutions Europe "will just buy them from the Americans". Hubert invoked de Gaulle's industrial policy, the TGV high-speed rail programme and the state nuclear-plant build-out as the historical scale of effort required.

The same warning ran through Mistral AI cofounder Arthur Mensch's May 12 testimony to the National Assembly's commission of inquiry on structural dependencies and systemic vulnerabilities in the digital sector, which the weekend coverage put back in the headlines. "We do not have the time", Mensch told the commission; Europeans risk "a form of digital colonialism by the Americans", and "I'm not worried about them; I'm rather worried about us", he added, raising the prospect of the EU becoming a "vassal state".

Belarus state media outlet BelTA reported that President Emmanuel Macron initiated a call with Alexander Lukashenko, with the two said to have discussed regional issues and Belarus-EU relations. The Élysée did not confirm the call by press time, and the absence of a French read-out left the Belarusian account standing on its own.

Juliana Lumumba -- daughter of the assassinated Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba and a former culture minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- announced her bid for secretary-general of the International Organisation of La Francophonie in an RFI interview from Paris, pledging a "Francophonie of the people" focused on youth, conflict mediation and community engagement. Member states vote in November 2026, with incumbent Louise Mushikiwabo also seeking re-election.

The French Army's DEMAIA project completed installation of an AI-based automatic target-detection module on a Griffon multi-role armoured vehicle, using visible and infrared optical feeds to reduce crew cognitive load; the module will be progressively deployed on the VTT and VOA variants under the SCORPION programme. Separately, on 31 March the Direction générale de l'armement ordered a fifth Defence and Intervention Frigate (FDI) from Naval Group, completing the planned five-unit programme for the French Navy after the fourth order in December 2025.