The Minister of Action and Public Accounts, David Amiel, wants “social negotiation within the public service” in the face of the “upheaval in the world of work” brought about by AI. He hopes for an agreement by the fall.
A “social negotiation within the public service dedicated” to artificial intelligence (AI) with a view to an “agreement by the fall”: this is what the Minister of Action and Public Accounts, David Amiel, “proposes” in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche.
Faced with the “upheaval in the world of work” caused by AI, “trade union organizations and employer representatives have expressed” the need for “reinforced social dialogue”, says the minister to justify a negotiation in which “France will be a pioneer”, according to him.
“The challenge will be in particular to define priority uses of AI, to set the principles of ethics, sovereignty, training, support”, he explained, to build an “AI of general interest” with “public agents, for the public service”, not subject to “the American or Chinese interests”.
Civil servants use AI sneakily
What will ultimately reduce the number of civil servants? “This is not the goal of this AI plan” which aims to “free up paperwork time and save human relations time,” assures David Amiel.
“There is an urgent need to act,” argues the minister, based on a survey carried out in recent months “among 2,000 agents from nine administrations and operators” already using AI “in the context of their work”.
Thus, 80% of respondents “want a wider deployment of AI tools” and 73% cite an improvement in their productivity, reports Mr. Amiel.
Above all, “more than half of those surveyed use a non-framework AI like ChatGPT”. However “the danger is to have a clandestine AI which is deployed” to the detriment of the protection of “our data and our independence”.
An AI tool in the spring for public finance agents
Various measures have already been launched. The minister notably “asked the national public service institute (INSP, formerly ENA)” to adapt “training to the challenges of AI”.
In addition, “from this summer, a million public agents will be able to use an automatic recording and transcription tool”, he specifies, also referring to the generalization “this spring” of an “AI tool for the general directorate of public finances” transforming “technical responses intended for users in plain language”.
“Public procurement” is also “reoriented towards French and European actors”, underlines Mr. Amiel.
Independently of the proposed social negotiations, the state launched in March a “Strategic Review of the Civil Service 2035-2050”, focusing in particular on AI, the results of which must appear six months before the presidential election.
