Could artificial intelligence eventually render obsolete scientific research by humans?
“Personally, I don’t think so,” Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, said Thursday morning at a signing ceremony for his 50 million euro donation to fund a new institute for mathematics and fundamental sciences at École Polytechnique, France’s top engineering school. “While artificial intelligence certainly drives the advancement of knowledge at an extraordinary speed, I believe it will never possess the imagination of an [Albert] Einstein. AI could never have written E = m c2.
“Einstein himself said, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge.’ And that holds true today,” Arnault said, speaking before a crowd that included French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his sons Antoine, Alexandre and Frédéric.
Government and military officials convened in a gilded reception room at Les Invalides, whose military history syncs up with École Polytechnique, which was militarized by Napoleon in 1804 and is still considered the only Grande École in France whose students play a role in national defense, and nurturing the country’s interests.
Its president, mathematician Laura Chaubard, wore her military uniform for the event.
