Some entrepreneurs in the French delegation at the Las Vegas high-tech show still find it hard to believe it. The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, ventured this Tuesday afternoon in a small group into the crowds of the French Tech stands. In the absence of a minister or a secretary of state, due to reshuffle, the 150 French start-ups attended the parade of one of the most powerful leaders in the world. The framework ? The alleys of Eureka Park, the crossroads of young shoots with sometimes improbable inventions located in a large hotel on the “Strip”, the long boulevard of casinos.
Focused on artificial intelligence, this 2024 edition could not do without recognition by the boss of Microsoft, the main investor in the young start-up OpenAI behind the chatbot phenomenon ChatGPT. He was first the surprise guest at a conference at the show before heading to the corner reserved for budding businesses.
The secret was kept until the end. “We received a visit early in the morning from a Microsoft employee who offered to welcome a manager, we obviously accepted because everyone is welcome,” says Richard Malterre, the communications director of the start-up. up of robotics Enchanted Tools. “We didn’t expect at all to see the CEO of an IT giant arrive,” he still marvels. At 4 p.m., the slender manager of Indian origin arrives to chat in a relaxed manner with Jérôme Monceaux, the CEO of the young company. The discussion focuses on the integration of AI in the Miroki robot and whether it needs the Internet, in plain language servers, to interact with humans.
Satya Nadella continued his wanderings in the other aisles to discover innovations made in France. “He was able to see that ChatGPT, in which he invested a lot of money, is well used by companies around the world,” smiles an executive from an AI company in the north of France. After this visit to French Tech, the big boss continued his journey to other foreign delegations to take the pulse of the high-tech planet.