April 16, 2026
During the Steering Committee meeting of the Labo de l'ESS on October 16, 2025, Vincent Aurez, co-founder of Figen AI and a member of the Steering Committee, presented recent advances in artificial intelligence, and the opportunities and limits that arise from them. In this interview, which is part of the Labo de l'ESS's ESS and artificial intelligence dossier, he shares his vision.
Could you introduce your background and your organization, Figen AI?
I am Vincent Aurez, president and co-founder of the IT company Figen AI which develops tools that rely on artificial intelligence. It is the first purpose-driven company in the AI sector, and we therefore have social and environmental objectives in our bylaws.
I have a background in extra-financial objectives; I created several associations and was also a manager at a consulting firm on sustainable development issues. Many people around me are surprised that I now work in the AI sector, but to me it makes perfect sense! I have always been passionate about transforming economic structures to pursue goals other than pure financial gain.
Today, I work with great enthusiasm on AI and think about what we can do with a tool that, for some things, is more intelligent than humans. I am convinced that AI will enable the democratization of knowledge, and that this will be very interesting for associations and the social and solidarity economy.
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How do you combine the use of AI with the ESS values that are important to you?
I try, as much as possible, to demonstrate AI uses that could have positive returns for ESS actors and their direct beneficiaries.
Also, I personally created a company that pays attention to the energy consumption of the AI models used, as well as the location of data centers and their energy efficiency. We do research and development on the matter to use more and more so-called local models, hosted on a computer, without using the Internet.
What would you say to someone who is not yet informed about AI?
So many things! First of all, I would say we must beware of magicians who promise that AI will change everything. I deeply believe that this tool will and already is changing many things, but our economic structures and the phenomena of injustice will remain the same if we do not set ourselves in motion to work on them. It is not a new tool that will change everything for better or worse! Everything will depend on what we make of it.
I would also encourage as many people as possible to take an interest in artificial intelligence! We are living a technological revolution. AI does not just reproduce content: this technology can create new things, which is unprecedented.
One must also be able to distinguish between a tool like ChatGPT and the Mistral software, an AI model based in France, which can be hosted on one's computer. Some tools respect ethical standards, others do not, and one must know how to inquire about the matter.
From there, it will be interesting to ask what AI can bring to users
And in your view, what can the social and solidarity economy bring to this reflection?
To my eyes, the ESS must not make the mistake of turning a blind eye to the development of AI, at the risk of resembling companies that refused for decades to address the issue of climate change.
The world of tomorrow will need the social and solidarity economy even more, and a good AI tool could be a way to contribute to it. We could imagine an AI tool trained for the ESS, for example. Without any doubt, the ESS will have something to say in a world where AI will be part of our habits, provided it takes an interest in it!
"Every AI model is political, whether in terms of databases, server location and the economic model."
— Vincent Aurez
Thus, the values of the ESS could guide us in the use of AI. We will have to ask ourselves about the governance of artificial intelligence tools, to consider different models.
Let us remember the arrival and development of the Internet: its model has completely changed since its beginnings. This is also true for social networks, online videos, and all web tools! The same changes will apply to AI. Let us take part in the discussions now, to shape AI and its uses in 10 or 20 years.
The ESS can also contribute to the issue of sobriety in the use of AI. It is undeniable that this technology consumes material, energy and land, and we must carry out essential reflection to set and achieve sobriety objectives in the years to come, including at the level of uses, with the aim of using the right tool for the right reasons. AI would, for example, be a major ally to accelerate the development of the commons, by democratizing knowledge and information for the greatest number. And in a few years, perhaps we will have cooperatives of AI data centers, as has been done for renewable energies!
Of course, we must think about the environmental consequences, but to my eyes we would be wrong to forget the possible social benefits of a reasoned use of AI.
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Do you have an example?
Absolutely! I worked with an association that had been trying for years to attract donations from companies, in the context of the current budgetary constraints. Thanks to AI, this association created an argument brochure using legal articles and presenting personalized arguments for each company that they had never imagined before. And it worked!
In your opinion, will AI really represent a revolution, like the Internet?
I would even go further: I think we have not experienced a revolution of this scale, even with the Internet!
We are dealing with something more fundamental, which questions the very idea of what humans do. Novels, songs, political speeches can be written with the help of AI. This will even concern the drafting of bills! It disrupts the very role of human beings in the economic value chain. In many cases, AI allows a spectacular reduction in costs. It will be up to us to choose how it will be used: will we decide to replace volunteers with AI... or to democratize knowledge previously inaccessible to the greatest number?
Let us take advantage of the opportunity before us to build more virtuous models and more sober uses. My goal is not that everyone uses AI, but that everyone asks the question of its usefulness and its impacts
