Yeah, agree with most of this. I added a not saying that it's the narrative that I think is shaping France actions, rather than my view of the situation.
I agree that Mistral cannot come to parity on technical prowess. I think that from the sovereignty angle, it still can be a success if they make models that are actually useful for industry and are trusted by French national security agencies, which seems to be more like Mistral's goal lately.
Strong agree on not expecting France to be a significant player in AI development. However, I expect that France seeing itself as in the race is a big part of the current AI investment push. Also, France might not be in the race, but it could still actually matter whether they have national compute resources and expertise. France only developed nuclear weapons fourth, but it still matters for its sovereignty to have them.
Also agree on the lameness of the tech scene in France. I was working in a world leading crypto startup started in France, and the founder still ended up moving from Paris to London, to get closer to a proper financial district.
Maybe people avoid looking at that because realizing they aren’t in love with their partner would be very inconvenient.
This definitely happened for me. I wasted so much time in relationships that were not valuable to me. Thanks for writing it so crisply.
LOCATION CHANGE
Due to the Thunderstorm alert tomorrow, I'm moving the location to Ground Control, near Gare de Lyon.
Looking forward to meet you all tomorrow!
Updated invite: https://partiful.com/e/ZumH1DtmgOxLqSFy34jL
Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/RQzuD9hPicS5UKj4A
Yeah, I've ramped up slowly and did not get injured :) Although, I did not do any long runs in those yet.
Do you think the proper running technique would be different for barefoot shoes? I've heard that, with barefoot running, it's better to go forefoot first to use the arch muscles to absorb the shock, or something like that.
What's your opinion on starting to run with barefoot shoes? I've recently started using barefoot shoes due to overpronation and ankle instability (worked very well), so I've been a bit hesitant to use narrow cushioned shoes again for running. Any resources you recommend on this topic?
Thank you, River, for being the actual lawyer here.
I guess much of my confusion stemmed from thinking a 501c3 was a specific corporate structure from the way the podcast described it, whereas you seem to say that it's a tax status that you put on top of any existing corporate structure. In France, the tax advantages are just part of the Association structure.
Governance structure: I got the wrong impression from the podcast, where Andrew said that making a board and having board meetings was part of the steps to start a church. Probably, that was specific to the Californian corporate structure he was using, which I thought was a characteristic of 501c3.
Liability: Same for this. It makes sense that 501c3 being only a tax status has no bearing on liability.
Constitutional protection: Here I was thinking about the part of the podcast where Andrew said that one advantage of incorporating as a church was that you had to do far less reporting of your activities to the government than other 501c3.
Lobbying: Yeah, makes sense that one would just separate the two organizations. I agree that the main advantage in French law is that you keep the tax-deductible donations when lobbying, as long as the lobbying supports the general interest mission.
Board members: In France, it's common for the president of the board and organization leader role to be the same person (the Président-directeur général). In most small Associations I've been part of, the president of the board was in fact the leader of the organization, so the restriction on getting paid was in fact restricting. If the default approach in the US is to separate them, then it makes sense that it's not a "workaround".
Interestingly, that means that Sam Altman being OpenAI's CEO and on the OpenAI board is actually a surprising point of power concentration if American organizations are not like that by default.
Note that the documentation says they'll aim to recruit 1-3 nationals from each EU country (plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). As far as I understood, it does not require them to be living in their home country at the time of applying. Therefore, people from small European countries have especially good odds.
Note also that the gender balance goal would also increase the chance for any women applying.
1Thanks for sharing! I've been sharing it with people working in AI Safety across Europe.
Do you know if anyone is doing a coordinated project to reach out to promising candidates from all EU countries and encourage them to apply? I'm worried that great candidates may not hear about it in time.
Its population advantage had vastly reduced by the end of the 19th century already, as France was the first country to go through a demographic transition in the 18th century. AFAIK its relative population compared to other western countries has been stable since WWII.
Yeah I realized this post did make me sound like a patriot lol. I'm not convinced of France's relevance, nor its irrelevance. I'm writing those posts for myself to figure out whether France matters, and to help other people working in AI policy to have a good model of France's motivations in the AI race.