French Council Urges Macron to Tighten Rules on AI Assistants—But Stops Short of a Ban

France’s Council on AI and Digital Technology (CIANum), a government advisory body, submitted a report to President Emmanuel Macron on November 10 calling for the "immediate" tightening of rules governing AI assistants such as ChatGPT. The report cites risks ranging from misinformation and user dependency to potential harms for children and teenagers, and argues that France’s oversight framework has not kept pace with the rapid spread of conversational AI.

Notably, the council stopped short of recommending an outright ban on AI assistants. Observers link that decision to France’s recent experience with a proposed social‑media ban for under‑15s, which was blocked by the Constitutional Council on fundamental‑rights grounds. Instead, CIANum proposes measures that align with—but go beyond—the EU’s AI Act: clearer disclosure when users are interacting with an AI system, stronger safeguards for minors, and stricter rules on how usage data is collected and processed.

France’s data‑protection authority, CNIL, is already investigating several generative‑AI services, and the new report is likely to shape how Paris chooses to "gold‑plate" EU‑level AI rules at the national level. As one of Europe’s core economies and a vocal player on tech regulation, France’s next steps on AI assistants will be closely watched by policymakers in Japan and elsewhere.