AI Lucie: How big are the eggs of cows ?

This article speaks about start problems of a french AI solution. This does not mean, that the AI solutions of other countries do always give correct answers. And it does not mean neither, that the french bot will not improve its functioning. There are good chances, that the « Lucie » solution can be programmed in a way that one day it will be able to tell which animals lay eggs and which animals don’t.

Facts about the french tech company Linagora 

The company informs on its website to have 200 employees that work in France, Tunisia and Vietnam.

The CEO of the company is Michel-Marie Maudet, who – according to his Linkedin Profile – was a system administrator for the french air force, before he founded Linagora in 2000.

The current CTO is a former high-ranking police officer who is specialised in digital technologies, and who worked as well as deputy director of the IT department of the french ministry of the interior.

Linagora created for example the website medicen.org, which is a public-private partnership hub concerning digital solutions in the health sector, or Hubl.in, an open source video conferencing tool. The company works on chatbots in the bank area too. Among the clients mentioned on its website are as well the DIY retailer Castorama and Air France.

Linagora is financed by the french government

Governments in many countries support national entreprises in the AI development sector, and so does France.

The investment plan « France 2030 »  aims to help develop innovative technologies and to facilitate ecological transition. Its financial resources of 54 billion EUR are integrated in the bigger project « France Relance », which has a total budget of 100 billion EUR (of which 40 billion EUR are provided by the European Union).  

The strategic aims of « France 2030 « include the promotion of sovereign digital solutions and the fostering of innovative startup companies. Among the new innovative technologies is for example Biomimetics, the imitation of biological processes. Linagora has specialised advisors for this discipline too.

Thus, the software editor is one of the french tech companies that are sponsored within the France 2030-Plan.

Why is Linagora’s AI software called Lucie ?

Let’s talk about the AI chatbot Lucie. Technically, it’s a « generative AI in open source mode ». Its name is not Lucy, but Lucie. The Linagora website gives a description of Lucie, but only in the french site version (when clicking at the english version you come to an error page, that SEO Experts know as « 404 error »/ last check : 30 jan. 2025).

Lucie is symbolized by an AI picture of a blonde and blue-eyed young woman, whose face is surrounded by the colours of the french flag (blue, white, red). The french site text informs that this persona is based on an original mixture of cultural references :

First of all, it shall remind the famous Australopithecus Lucy, who is « the common ancestor of the whole mankind ».

Then, there was the action movie « Lucy » by the french film director Luc Besson in 2014, with Scarlett Johansson in the star role.

And thirdly, Lucie shall remind the Marianne persona, a female personification of the French Republic.

Linagora works on Lucie together with other stakeholders that are grouped in the community OpenLLM-France.

Lucie’s public test version produced crazy answers

The test version lucie.chat went public on 22nd january 2025. Le Figaro informs that some answers of Lucie were absolutely weird.

When asked about the weight of the holes in a french cheese, Lucie answered « about 10 to 20 grams ».

Lucie explained as well, that cows lay eggs, and how these eggs taste.

Remember : Linagora has official experts on biomimetics …

Such answers are indeed cringy, and it is difficult to imagine, that the software engineers did not exclude this kind of logical dysfunctions of the tool before it went public.

As the logical errors of Lucie’s public test version were reported by more and more people on the social networks, Linagora had to react to a crisis situation.

The Crisis Communication of Linagora

When the feedback about Lucie’s weird answers got viral on social media, the managers of Linagora decided to close the public access to the software on 25th january 2025, after just three days of public testing.

The reputation of a company can be damaged in such a situation. Le Figaro quotes mockeries of users, as for example « Donald Trump and the USA will not get in trouble », the french radio station Europe 1 spoke on its website even of a « fiasco of Lucie ».

For Linagora there was as well the necessity to realize what is called « Crisis Communication » in marketing – to inform the public about an unpleasant situation, by trying to keep a professional image.

The crisis communication of Linagora can be read on its website (only on the french site version, last check : 30 jan. 2025).

The respective article insists on the point that Lucie is still an « academic research project in its initial phase ». It explains that there should have been more explicite information on the fact that it was just a test version, and that the « enthusiasm » of the managers had been too big.

According to Le Figaro, the first version of this crisis comm article did even contain grammar errors, which is interpreted as an indication of precipitous action.

A solid risk management – which is part of professional project management – can ensure that products or services do not go public as long as they are not ready.

Paris hosts an International AI Action Summit on 10 and 11 February 2025. Linagora would have probably loved to present a successful test version of its chatbot.

The AI tool Lucie will certainly be improved in the near future. To which point ? Are there limits ?

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