Speech of Sarosh Nagar, Enlightenment in Action Alliance’s Member
Thank you all for coming today. My name is Sarosh Nagar. I am a Marshall Scholar and researcher at University College London (UCL). I am very excited today to summarize the high-level contributions of the young people of the Enlightenment in Action Alliance (EAA) as part of the broader Creating a New Paris of Enlightenment report by the Boston Global Forum (BGF). Before I begin, I would like to thank the leadership of the Forum for this opportunity and to France for hosting such a wonderful event.
The Boston Global Forum established the Enlightenment in Action Alliance to support President Macron and France by bringing talented students from top universities to contribute to France and the global AI community. As part of the Alliance, over the past few weeks, the Boston Global Forum’s Youth Delegates proposed several ways that France can harness the benefits of AI for good. These proposals were reviewed by the Boston Global Forum’s Board, which includes world-renowned experts from industry, policy, and academia–many of whom are here today. The Board selected several proposals for inclusion in the final report, which Boston Global Forum CEO Mr. Tuan will present to President Macron tomorrow.
In turn, the contributions of the youth delegates in our report fall into five key areas, which I will briefly summarize below.
First, our report proposes ways that France can harness AI for scientific research while enhancing data governance. AI has immense scientific applications, as seen with diffusion-based generative models that aid in protein structure prediction. Therefore, our report proposes launching a Cloud Laboratory, a type of laboratory that would utilize AI and robotics to enable automated large-scale experiments in biotechnology and materials science. In similar vein, our report also focuses on data governance. Effectively curated data can greatly enhance AI systems’ computational efficiency while representative data is important to ensure AI systems remain inclusive. Therefore, our report proposes France launch a Data Library, which would be a high-quality repository of public datasets compliant with the highest ethical and privacy standards. These public datasets, many of which would focus on low-resource languages, could later be used to train more advanced AI models and ensure frontier model capabilities remain inclusive.
Second, our report proposes ways for France to harness AI for social and economic development. Several estimates suggest AI will add over $10 trillion to the global economy by 2030, but it is important that AI’s benefits are widely accessible. Therefore, this report proposes initiatives utilizing AI for rural communities, harnessing large multimodal models in use cases like agriculture. The report also proposes launching a global initiative to upskill the workforce for AI, including launching apprenticeships, AI-driven vocational training, and more.
Third, our report proposes ways that France can utilize AI to enhance cultural preservation and public discourse. Being in France, a nation with a rich cultural and civic tradition, it is incumbent on us to analyze how AI can further enhance this fabric of our societies. In this spirit, the report proposes launching an AI-based cultural heritage preservation program, utilizing AI, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) to digitally reconstruct cultural sites. The report calls for launching programs to help educate existing government, industry, and academic professionals on AI ethics. Finally, it also calls for an AI-driven public discourse platform to enable lively debate among citizens and promote democratic engagement.
Fourth, our reportproposes ways that France and other governments can harness AI for national and global security. Initial analyses suggest that AI is an offense-favored technology, which creates a vital question of how to enhance defensive use cases of AI. Therefore, our report proposes creating a national AI “cyber-shield,” a program of advanced AI agents for real-time cybersecurity monitoring and zero-day vulnerability detection, alongside programs to help ethical hackers and red-teamers secure these systems. Our report also proposes launching an AI-powered crisis response network, to harness advanced frontier models for disaster prediction, response coordination, and more — to defensively save lives from future global threats.
Fifth and lastly,our report proposes ways that France and other governments can harness AI to improve policymaking. In line with the spirit of this session, AI-enabled governance has immense transformative potential to speed up public service delivery and bureaucratic processes. Therefore, our report proposes that France launch programs to utilize frontier models to aid in the forecasting of legislation or using agents and other AI systems to streamline public-sector processes. The report also suggests focusing more research on building more energetically-efficient AI systems and identifying ways AI can support environmental monitoring. Lastly, our report also proposes ways to use machine learning algorithms to launch an automated national job matching tool to help promote high levels of employment.
This report, which will be available for review in further detail in the future, could not have been done without the aid of a large list of youth collaborators, with special recognition to Tuan Vinh, Cameron Sabet, Jason Shin, Dang Nguyen, Berke Altiparmak, Sammer Marzouk, and others for their contributions. We hope that, through these youth contributions to the “Creating a New Paris of Enlightenment” report, France will, much as it did in the past, lead a new era of Enlightenment that combines technological innovation with ethical governance for a better future.
This document is presented by the Boston Global Forum as a tribute to President Macron and the People of France, outlining a visionary initiative to propel France to the forefront of the AI Age: Creating a New Paris of Enlightenment. Inspired by the Enlightenment era, which led Europe and the world to remarkable achievements in the 18th and 19th centuries, this initiative seeks to elevate global innovation in the AI Age. Guided by the strong will, vision, and commitment of President Macron—recipient of the Boston Global Forum’s (BGF) World Leader for Peace and Security Award—this initiative aims to establish France as a leader in AI-driven societal transformation.
This initiative also encourages other nations to adopt AI-driven innovation to create progressive, forward-thinking societies. It lays out nine transformative pillars designed to shape France into a beacon of progress and innovation in the AI Age.
At the AI Action Summit Paris on February 11, 2025, AIWS Government 24/7 was introduced and recognized as a key element in the visionary initiative “Creating a New Paris of Enlightenment” presented to President Emmanuel Macron and the people of France. This transformative model of governance was the focal point of the session “Government 24/7: How AI Might Best Transform Governance,” where global leaders, policymakers, and innovators discussed its potential impact on governance and public services.
Distinguished Speakers
The session featured a lineup of esteemed speakers, including:
Elisabeth Moreno – Former French Minister for Gender Equality, Diversity, and Equal Opportunities
Honorable Mark Kennedy – Director of the Wilson Center’s Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition
Sanae Takaichi – Former Japanese Minister
Yasuhide Nakayama – Former Japanese State Minister of Defense and Foreign Affairs
Audrey Tang – Taiwan’s First Minister of Digital and Cyber Ambassador-at-Large
Yi-jing Lin – Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs, Taiwan
Pedro Fernandes Lopes – Secretary of State for the Digital Economy, Cabo Verde
Jean-Marc Yacé – Mayor of Cocody City, Ivory Coast
Alex Pentland – MIT and Stanford Professor, Director of the MIT Connection Science
Sharad Sharma – Co-founder of iSPIRT Foundation
Nazli Choucri – MIT Professor of Political Science
Thomas Patterson – Harvard Professor of Government and the Press
Nguyen Anh Tuan – Co-founder, Co-chair, and CEO of Boston Global Forum
Sarosh Nagar – Harvard & University College London (UCL), Enlightenment in Action Alliance (EAA)
Thomas Kehler, Founder and Chairman of Crowdsmart
Joseph Caristena – Writer, Innovator
Revolutionizing Governance with AIWS Government 24/7
AIWS Government 24/7 is a groundbreaking governance model that leverages artificial intelligence to provide seamless, responsive, and efficient public services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The discussion at the AI Action Summit emphasized how AI-driven governance can:
Enhance decision-making and streamline bureaucratic processes
Ensure accessibility and responsiveness of government services
Improve cybersecurity and protect critical infrastructure
Strengthen democracy through transparency and accountability
Support global digital governance initiatives
The recognition of AIWS Government 24/7 as a pillar of “Creating a New Paris of Enlightenment” underscores its significance in shaping the future of governance, innovation, and societal progress. The AI Action Summit Paris served as a platform for global leaders to explore how AI can redefine governance and drive sustainable development worldwide.
For more information on AIWS Government 24/7 and its role in the AI Age, visit BostonGlobalForum.org.
President Emmanuel Macron and Boston Global Forum (BGF) Co-chair and CEO Nguyen Anh Tuan at the AI Action Summit Paris
BGF Co-chair and CEO Nguyen Anh Tuan
Audrey Tang – Taiwan’s First Minister of Digital and Cyber Ambassador-at-Large
Hon. Mark R. Kennedy, Director of the Wilson Center’s Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition
Speech delivered on February 11, 2025, at the Boston Global Forum’s “Government 24/7: How Al Might Best Transform Governance” event as part of the Al Action Summit in Paris, France
24/7 Government: Harnessing AI for Public Good
Rather than seeking to lead the world in excessive regulations, Europe should consider leading in embracing initiatives like the AI World Society (AIWS) Government 24/7 model of government promoted by the Boston Global Forum.
This is a vision for government that operates continually, efficiently, and ethically, driven by AI to enhance human governance rather than replace it.
Nearly every other aspect of society has become continually responsive to individuals simply by tapping day or night on our smart phones. To reflect the Enlightenment’s spirit of individual empowerment, government should be just as responsive.
The AIWS Government 24/7 model embraces ethical governance and includes several components:
Boston Areti AI (Areti being the Greek word for virtue). This is the idea that governance can be improved by government leaders having access to an AI-driven decision-support agent that learns from history’s greatest leaders, accumulating the lessons learned from the past, and incorporating the best insights that AI can offer.
Integration of AI into all branches of government. To ensure efficient and responsive government, AI should support executive decision-making, legislative analysis, and judicial processing. Yes, humans will remain at the heart of governance, but by leveraging AI, governments can be more responsive to their citizens.
AIWS University. Universities should strive to become lifelong AI-empowered learning ecosystems, helping faculty to offer personalized education and accelerate research discoveries. Such universities would foster an interdisciplinary approach, integrating AI with ethics, policy, and technology to develop the next generation of leaders equipped to navigate the complexities of AI governance and innovation.
AIWS Healthcare. In the age of AI, healthcare providers can be more patient-centric. They can benefit from AI-driven predictive analytics, resource optimization, diagnostics, and treatment planning to enhance patient outcomes and reduce medical errors, in pursuit of providing continual, equitable access to high-quality healthcare.
Cybersecurity and Data Protection Policiestake on an even more important role. AI governance and service delivery systems must be safeguarded from misuse.
AI-assisted 24/7 governance promises greater efficiency, accessibility, and responsiveness. To achieve this, we must ensure it empowers government workers and citizens alike in like with the Enlightenment spirit, rather than overwhelming them with bureaucracy.
A Call to Action
We are at a defining moment. The choice before us is not merely one of technological design but one of philosophical alignment. Will we uphold the ideals of the Enlightenment, or will we allow them to be eclipsed by authoritarian efficiency?
The tasks before us are clear. First, we must ensure humans remain in control of AI. Second, we must champion the democratic, freedom-focused AI model over the authoritarian alternative. Third, we must address the broader societal concerns AI brings.
France must embrace its Enlightenment heritage, streamline regulatory burdens, and lead in advancing safe, human-centered AI. By doing so, it can inspire not only Europe but the world.
The Enlightenment was a revolution of knowledge, autonomy, and progress.
Today, we must ignite a similar revolution, ensuring that AI serves humanity, protects dignity, and upholds liberty.
Together, let us ensure that the democratic AI model prevails—not just for the sake of innovation, but for the preservation of the human spirit itself.
Please read full at: https://bostonglobalforum.org/publication/preserving-the-ideals-of-the-enlightenment-in-the-age-of-artificial-intelligence/
On February 11, 2025, at the AI Action Summit Paris, Vice President JD Vance delivered his remarks. Here are some key notes:
“Number one, this administration will ensure that American AI technology continues to be the gold standard worldwide and we are the partner of choice for others — foreign countries and certainly businesses — as they expand their own use of AI.
Number two, we believe that excessive regulation of the A- — the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off, and we’ll make every effort to encourage pro-gra- — growth AI policies. And I’d like to see that deregulatory flavor making its — its way into a lot of the conversations this — this conference.
Number three, we feel strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias, and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship.
And finally, number four, the Trump Administration will maintain a pro-worker growth path for AI so it can be a potent tool for job creation in the United States.
And I appreciate Prime Minister Modi’s point. AI, I really believe, will facilitate and make people more productive. It is not going to replace human beings. It will never replace human beings. And I think too many of the leaders in the AI industry — when they talk about this fear of replacing workers, I think they really miss the point. AI, we believe, is going to make us more productive, more prosperous, and more free.
The United States of America is the leader in AI, and our administration plans to keep it that way. The U.S. possesses all components across the full AI stack, including advanced semiconductor design, frontier algorithms, and, of course, transformational applications.”
