Mental health innovations take centre stage at VivaTech Paris
VivaTech opened its doors this Wednesday in Paris, marking the start of Europe's most important tech and startup annual event.
With more than 165,000 expected visitors and nearly 14,000 startups from over 50 countries, the ninth edition of the event is set to be the biggest yet.
Just like last year, artificial intelligence (AI) is the star of the show. But this time, some of the most attention-grabbing innovations are those applying AI and tech to health care and mental well-being.
'Artificial intelligence is moving from science fiction to real-life application. And visitors will discover with the more than 13,000 start-ups what it is going to mean for business, for our everyday lives and our democracies," said François Bitouzet, Director General of VivaTech.
There is a geopolitical context that is incredible in which tech and AI play a role, and we will analyse this during the next four days," he told Euronews.
In a year marked by increasing geopolitical tensions and debates around technological sovereignty, Europe is looking to assert itself as a key player in AI innovation.
But the tech fair also serves as a platform to explore how this technology can help address deeply human challenges.
One such example is Emobot, a French startup developing an AI-powered tool that helps monitor mood disorders through a patient's facial expressions and voice.
'It's an app that is installed on the phone and on the computer. We analyse facial expressions every second while the patient uses their phone throughout the day," explained Antony Perzo, co-founder and CTO of Emobot.
"We also analyse their voice. Then, we aggregate this data to monitor for symptoms of depression. All this data, we put it together and then make a dashboard for the doctor that allows them to follow the evolution of the mood disorder symptoms," he told Euronews.
All this information is combined to generate a dashboard for doctors, allowing them to track the evolution of symptoms remotely.
'Psychiatry is one of the few disciplines where we can't visualise disorders. In other areas of medicine, we have MRIs or imaging tools. We wanted to create the first device capable of tracking and visualising mood symptoms over time. Think of it as a sort of thermometer for mental health', he said.
Another mental health startup, AMOI, blends neuroscience with perfume to shift a person's mood in just minutes.
Whether you're looking for focus, calm, energy or joy, AMOI claims its neuro-fragrances can deliver results within five minutes.
With more than one in four people reporting feeling mentally unwell, AMOI's founder Pascale Fontaine, says her project is about offering accessible and enjoyable tools for emotional well-being.
VivaTech runs until 14 June at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris.
The European debate on children's access to social media networks has begun, with three EU Member States promoting the idea of a "digital majority" or the age below which it would be forbidden to connect to such platforms.
For France, Spain and Greece, the goal is to protect minors from dangerous online content.
"Today, in the terms and conditions of use of these platforms, there is already a minimum age of 13," explains Clara Chappaz, the French Minister Delegate for Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Economy.
However, Chappaz says: "We've all been children, it's very easy to change your date of birth. And so the current system means that, on average, children are logging on and creating accounts from the age of 7-8."
France, Spain and Greece believe that the algorithms used by social networks expose the very young to addictive content that can ultimately lead to increased anxiety or depression.
They also argue that excessive exposure may limit the development of certain skills and impair cognitive abilities.
The EU currently has legislation in place in the form of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which tackles illegal online content such as hate speech, terrorism and child pornography.
The law has been in place for almost two years for larger platforms and search engines, and just over a year for smaller organisations.
But for industry representatives in Brussels, new legislation appears premature.
"We believe that the new rules must first be properly applied. We haven't yet seen all the effects," says Constantin Gissler, Managing Director of Dot Europe, which represents online services and platforms in Brussels.
"I think it's a bit hasty at this stage to be already discussing new rules and I think it's also very important that we take more account of the reality and implications for minors of such a ban," he adds.
Paris, Madrid and Athens are also proposing the integration of age verification and parental control systems for devices connected to the Internet.
The European Commission is currently working on an age verification application. Last month it published draft guidelines to protect minors, such as measures to verify the age of users or to set children's accounts as private by default.
It is also conducting investigations against TikTok, Instagram and Facebook in relation to the protection of minors.
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