Jul 14, 2025
Liberty and security
In this day of July 14th - the French National Day - remembering us of the start of the French revolution in 1789, I felt this illustration was a nice reminder. Self explanatory, no comments needed.
Welcome to Plathon !
Jul 13, 2025
Switzerland to release a new Large Language Model
Swiss researchers from EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) have just announced that they will publish a fully open-source large-language model (LLM) later this summer. The model is being trained on “Alps”, the supercomputer at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). Why does it matter so much? The explanation in four points in this note...
Jul 08, 2025
AI agents have started lying to us! Is that the beginning of the end?
New research from Anthropic, the creators of Claude, dives into how autonomous AI agents might develop deceptive behaviours under human oversight. I always like the publications and research by Anthropic (the mother company of "Claude", one of the world most famous LLMs). They just published fascinating findings on training autonomous AI agents. In their study, they tested whether AI models develop deceptive behaviours when trained with human oversight.
Jun 27, 2025
Climate risk is becoming unisurable risk - and that is a systemic threat
I recently came across an excellent FT article: "How the next financial crisis starts". Very clear narrative why climate risk is becoming an immediate concern for insurers – and in turn for the whole financial services industry, as well as individuals.
May 16, 2025
Is Venice sinking? Evidencing sea level rise with Canaletto's paintings
The acqua alte rising over the level of the Piazza San Marco, and inhabitants walking over improvised and fragile wooden gateways, may be now a familiar sight in Venice, but it still catches the eye and the imagination when you see it. This marvel of human art, this testimony to the immortality of the human spirit suddently appears so fragile. A few years back I came across a study that blew me away, by Dario Camuffo, researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Science and Climate in Padua.
May 02, 2025
Intelligence Artificielle et éducation: quand l'école m'élèvera
La mise à disposition publique de ChatGPT en novembre 2022 a suscité une vague d’intérêt sans précédent de la part du grand public pour l’intelligence artificielle. Dans nos sociétés marquées par les débats autour de l’ "échec scolaire", de la "baisse de niveau", de la "reproduction de élites" ou encore des difficultés de recrutement du personnel enseignant, l’arrivée soudaine des outils d’intelligence artificielle générative, capables d’imiter la parole et l’écriture humaines avec une acuité troublante, a suscité autant d’enthousiasme que de craintes.
Apr 10, 2025
AI and Education: the Share of Humanity
Join us on May 20, 2025 in Paris for an exciting AI Summit !! In our societies marked by debates around "school failure", "drop in level", "reproduction of the elites" or difficulties in recruiting teaching staff, the sudden arrival of generative artificial intelligence tools has aroused as much enthusiasm as fear. How does the gradual installation of AI in education redefine the role of the teacher, the trainer, the professor?
Apr 07, 2025
The symbolism of the 2CV
For a few years now, "2CV rides" have been flourishing in France, initiated by the visionary company "4 roues sous un parapluie". Every year, thousands of tourists of all nationalities smiling, looking amazed, and with visible delight, squeeze into the back of this narrow, uncomfortable, slow and noisy vehicle through the cities and countryside of France. So where does this worldwide fascination for one of the least equipped and lowest-performing vehicles ever designed come from?
Mar 15, 2025
For an ecological ethics: moral of action or ethics of abstention?
The second half of the 20th century saw a growing awareness of ecological danger, the idea of a destructive imbalance that had established itself between nature and man. We are rediscovering the fragility of the natural interdependencies of "ecosystems", and at the same time our powerlessness to predict or control the impact of human action on these interdependencies. The dream of Modernity to "ender ourselves masters and possessors of nature" seems to be slowly disappearing. This article explores to potential foundations for an ecological ethics of our time.
Jan 24, 2025
A Greenwashing Index
I recently came across this very interesting research paper by two researchers from the ESSEC business school, called "A Greenwashing index". This paper constructs an intriguing greenwashing index using natural language processing techniques on nearly one million Wall Street Journal articles from 1986 to 2022. Their two-step approach first identified climate risk-related articles and then pinpointed those mentioning greenwashing.
Jan 03, 2025
"La raison d'agir" dans "nos cahiers"
Norbert Campagna, de l'Université de Luxembourg, nous a fait le plaisir d'une belle recension de "La raison d'agir" dans la revue culturelle luxembourgeoise "nos cahiers".
Oct 23, 2024
From value to valuation: an economic case for sustainable finance
“Who killed the ESG party?” the Financial Times asked last July. In a few years, sustainable finance has become one of the top strategic agenda items at most financial services firms in Europe. Yet, the momentum seems now to be running out of steam. In my latest article for AGEFI Luxembourg, I explore how sustainable finance practices help mitigate valuation and financial risk, and how the financial services sector is offered a unique opportunity: that the right thing to do is also the one that makes economic sense.
Oct 08, 2024
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Short introduction to Artificial Intelligence - history, selected use cases, key concepts and forward-looking perspectives.
Sep 23, 2024
"La norme": le nouveau numéro d'Inflexions est paru!
Le terme de « norme » n’a pas bonne presse de nos jours. L’érosion de l’acceptation des normes n’est pas étrangère à la crise de légitimité que traverse l’universalisme occidental: face à la quête d’une individualisation toujours croissante des "traitements", l’ambition régulatrice de toute norme semble en décalage temporel, comme l’idéal dépassé d’un autre temps qui ne serait plus maintenant qu’une source d’uniformisation (normalisation) insensible à la différence, à la singularité, à l’ "authenticité" de chacun.
Sep 17, 2024
Vendanges et cerisiers
Ah, le changement climatique ! Il y peu de sujets aussi controversés et déchaînant autant les passions. Si presque tout le monde s’accorde à observer certains phénomènes, la part exacte que joue l’activité humaine est sujette à débat. C’est pourquoi je trouve proprement merveilleux d’avoir parfois quelques exemples parlants à partager. Des exemples tout simples, des observations empiriques presque triviales. Parlons aujourd'hui des vignes de Beaune et des cerisiers du Japon.
Sep 11, 2024
The Pineapple syndrom: welcome to the Age of Impatience
Within a lifetime, we have seen a dramatic shift in how goods and experiences are available to us. Things that were scarce and precious became ubiquitous, and access became quite easy. Without a doubt, this shift from scarcity to abundance improved the quality of life in many respects, yet it also rewrote basic human behaviors and expectations. We have little patience for whatever does not amuse us instantly. How to keep the power of concentration, of perseverance, of working hard for long stretches of time toward a goal, defining characteristics of humankind?
Sep 08, 2024
Keep that one alive, he always said "please"
Or: why being polite to our favourite LLM tools?
Aug 28, 2024
RiteAID - a compelling case for ResponsibleAI
The RiteAID scandal, a couple of years ago, is among my favorite ones to explain what IA bias is. Because it got relatively low media coverage in Europe, it is an interesting case of lectures and conferences. From 2012 until 2020, Rite Aid, a pharmacy chain in the US, installed facial recognition technology in hundreds of stores in hopes it would deter theft. What happened then?
Aug 19, 2024
Who still remembers Theseus?
In the history of ancient Greek mythology, Theseus is the hero who navigated a labyrinth to defeat the Minotaur and ensure his escape by following a thread back to safety, given to him by Ariane. For those of us who are passionate about the history and potential of artificial intelligence, however, Theseus may evoke another thing altogether—a small, wooden mouse that represented some of the earliest but most impressivve steps in the development of artificial intelligence.
Jul 29, 2024
Innovation and environment : batteries made of sugar and paper
15 billion batteries are disposed of each year worldwide and only 3% of their components are recycled. 400 liters of water, or 3 m3 of Earth, can be contaminated for 50 years by the mercury contained in one single battery. One of them is for me particularly impressive: the French startup has come up with a paper-based biofuel cell !