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French weekly magazines review 6 August 2017

Artificial Intelligence - a useful tool or a dystopian nightmare? That is one of the main talking points in the French magazines this week, along with a short history of orgies in the Vatican and tributes to the great actress Jeanne Moreau, who passed away on Monday at the age of 89.

French weekly magazines
French weekly magazines DR
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Le Point has an interesting take on an epic rivalry in the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with an editorial titled "The good, the bad, and the ugly".

In Clint Eastwood's role we find the visionary head of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, who recently claimed that AI was a "fundamental risk to human civilisation".

This was not designed to please the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who has a keen interest in the spread of algorithms.

"Today, data is more precious than oil," reads the article by Idriss Aberkane, a specialist in the use of knowledge in economy. By selling our data Facebook weighs in at more than 500 billion dollars on the stock exchange, more than Total, LVMH, L'Oréal, Airbus, Axa, and Vivendi combined.

This might be why Zuckerberg called Musk's comments "irresponsible".

As for the "ugly", that would be Travis Kalanick, who was recently forced to resign from Uber, the company he founded, following a damning report on its workplace culture.

He was reportedly rebuffed by Musk after he tried to strike a partnership with Tesla to develop the use of automated cars.

The blind man, the puppy and the terminator

After The good, the bad and the ugly, enter "the blind man, the puppy, and the terminator".

In his opinion piece in L'Express, biotechnology specialist Laurent Alexandre says we need to do more research on AI, because, as things stand, there’s simply no knowing what long-term consequences it will have for humanity.

To illustrate his point, he explains that AI could be used to better select puppies to become guide dogs.

At the moment over 60 percent of the dogs selected end up failing, which makes the training of guide dogs very costly. But IBM’s own AI, named Watson, can apparently predict with 100 percent accuracy which puppy will succeed.

On the other hand, to overcome our greatest challenges, such as finding cures for illnesses and death, we will need to create an artificial intelligence capable of thinking for itself. And this is where computers could become dangerous. For Elon Musk, there’s just one step from the cute little puppy to the Terminator, whereas for Mark Zuckerberg, they are worlds apart.

Pontifical orgies at the Vatican

There are more villains in L’Obs this week.

The magazine brings us some historical perspective to a recent scandal at the Vatican involving drunkenness, cocaine, male strippers and high-ranking members of the clergy.

On page 14 you can revel in a short history of pontifical orgies, starting with the pope Sixtus IV, who used to select his cardinals on the basis of their physical appearance before moving onto the notorious Borgias.

In 1501 Alexander VI brought 50 prostitutes to his court, to organise a “virility contest”.

Of course, times have changed, especially after the attacks by protestant reformers against what they called the “New Babylon”.

But L’Obs has some reassuring words for current Pope Francis and the Catholic church.

“How can we not reassure them?” it asks, sarcastically. “When it comes to disorders against nature, as they used to say, the Holy See has seen it all before.”

Jeanne Moreau's "freedom will be missed"

L’Obs front cover, however, goes to the great French actress Jeanne Moreau, who passed away on Monday at the age of 89.

The magazine dedicates 12 pages to the husky-voiced heroine of François Truffaut’s Jules and Jim, who went on to to become the most prominent actress of the French New Wave.

“More than an actress, unfathomable and unpredictable, she represented the shifting faces of French cinema for over half a century”, writes L’Obs.

Marianne also pays tribute to Moreau, saying that “her freedom will be missed”.

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