On July 1, 2021, the Confiance.ai program was launched with the objective of meeting the challenge of industrializing AI. Thirteen industrial companies and academic partners have come together to form a collective that will meet the following major challenge: “Secure, make reliable and certify systems based on artificial intelligence”. They all want to industrialize and integrate trusted AI into their critical products and services while providing a technical framework for the future European AI regulationproposal.
A collective to industrialize and integrate trusted AI
The launch event of the Confiance.ai program took place at the Valeo Mobility Tech Center, Valéo’s new R&D center dedicated to autonomous vehicles. This is a collective of thirteen major French industrial and academic partners: Air Liquide, Airbus, Atos, Naval Group, Renault, Safran, Sopra Steria, Thales, Valeo, as well as the CEA, Inria, the IRT Saint Exupéry and the IRT SystemX.
They all have the same ambition: to combine their skills and strengths to industrialise and integrate trusted AI into future critical industrial products and services, i.e. those whose accidents, failures or errors could have serious consequences for people and property. As Emmanuelle Escorihuela, president of the Confiance.ai program steering committee, reminds us:
“The challenges of integrating artificial intelligence into critical systems are immense and the expectations of French manufacturers are significant and need to be taken into account now. There are many demonstrators, but industrializing them for critical applications in industrial systems represents a major challenge. The Confiance.ai program is in synergy with existing initiatives (DEEL, ANITI, DATAIA, MIAI and IA2), and brings an additional level of integration through its strong industrial focus.”
Work on the Confiance.ai program began in January 2021 and the set-up and steering of the program has been entrusted to IRT SystemX.
The development of a platform of software tools for trusted AI
Between 2021 and 2024, the Confiance.ai collective will focus on the design of a sovereign, open, interoperable and sustainable software tool platform enabling
the integration of AI in critical products and services in a safe, reliable and secure way, which will be dedicated to the engineering of innovative industrial products and services integrating AI.
The first application sectors targeted by the initiative will be automotive, aeronautics, energy, digital, industry 4.0, defence and maritime, with various use cases such as online industrial control, autonomous mobility or decision support systems.
With a budget of €45 million for the period 2021-2024, Confiance.ai aims to be a technological pillar of the Grand Challenge dedicated to trusted AI. Cedric O, Secretary of State for Digital Transition and Electronic Communications, welcomed the project’s progress:
“Trusted AI, i.e. AI for critical systems, is needed today in many fields such as autonomous cars, aeronautics or space. The progress of this project testifies to the success of the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence and reinforces the need for public investment in cutting-edge technologies.”
Societal issues, economic competitiveness and national sovereignty
The collective aims to address issues of social acceptance, industrial competitiveness and national sovereignty at the same time. It is in line with the“Manifesto for artificial intelligence at the service of industry” signed in July 2019, by 8 French industrialists committed to making AI a source of growth and employment in their industrial sectors. 6 of these major groups are part of the Confiance.ai program (Airbus, Air Liquide, Renault, Safran, Thales and Valeo).
For the stakeholders of the initiative, propose technological solutions on certification, evaluation, transparency, reliability and audibility of algorithms allowing a high level of trust in future AI solutions dedicated to industry.
Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, Minister Delegate for Transport, said:
“We therefore need safe, high-performance and certifiable AI more than ever. This is the objective of Confiance.ai, the largest R&T program of the national strategy in Artificial Intelligence launched by the President of the Republic in 2018, financed to the tune of €30M by the Future Investment Program. I am delighted that industrialists from different sectors are collaborating on this great challenge.”
The timetable foresees, the delivery of integrated technological bricks each year, ensuring the valorization of transferable assets to the industrialists of the consortium will be carried out from the first results. In addition, a call for expressions of interest has been launched to integrate into the seven projects of the program, innovative start-ups and SMEs that can contribute to the resolution of certain technological issues: trust and system engineering with AI components, trust and learning data, trust and human interaction.
It is possible to respond to this call until September 3, and at the end of the selection process, the selected SMEs and start-ups will be able to start their work in the fourth quarter of 2021.
To find out more about trusted artificial intelligence, we invite you to consult ActuIA magazine No. 3, which devotes an extensive feature to the subject.
Translated from Confiance.ai : 13 institutions se réunissent pour mettre en place une IA de confiance dans l’industrie
