Last weekend, Aix-Marseille University (AMU) and the Ministerial Delegation for Artificial Intelligence (DMIA) announced a three-year collaboration (2021-2023) for regional development in the field of artificial intelligence. A draft agreement was signed on 12 February in the presence of Éric Berton, President of AMU, Romain Laffont, vice-president for partnership with the socio-economic world and director of Polytech Marseille, Ludovic Escoubas, director of AMU’s “Defence and Internal Security” doctoral programme and Jean-Martin Jaspers, DMIA prefect.

Some elements of this collaboration:

• The creation of a new university master’s degree will strengthen the training of AI executives for the security services of the State, companies, local authorities or private security.
• The realization of a joint study on the strategic vision of AI and the security industries.
• The integration of executives and employees of the French Ministry of the Interior among the AI trainers of Aix-Marseille University.
• The organization of symposiums and seminars to exchange expertise, experiences, data sets, test procedures, fight against bias, etc.
• Working for a better integration of job seekers in administrations, local authorities, security companies on new IA professions.
• To develop exchanges of information on Artificial Intelligence in Africa and Asia.

This cooperation aims at a major shift in favour of the development of artificial intelligence within the academic world, designating the Aix-Marseille site as a strategic player. Aix-Marseille University is one of the first universities in France to open such a national strategic collaboration. The French positioning in the field of education, data analysis and security in the Mediterranean arc will pave the way for other university partnerships.

Translated from Aix-Marseille Université et la délégation ministérielle pour l’intelligence artificielle signent un protocole d’accord