World AI Cannes Festival (WAICF) announces the nominees for the "Cannes Neurons Awards

World AI Cannes Festival (WAICF) announces the nominees for the “Cannes Neurons Awards

23 février 2022

World AI Cannes Festival (WAICF), the event that will bring together professionals and the general public from April 14 to 16, at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès de Cannes, around the latest innovations in Artificial Intelligence, announces the nominees for the “Cannes Neurons Awards”. Divided into three categories, Inclusive AI, Sustainable AI and Creative AI, the awards will recognize the most innovative AI projects of the moment.

The final will take place on Friday, April 15, 2022 at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes. The finalists of each category will present their projects in “Battles” in turn and the public will be able to vote live, electronically, to elect the winners.

The jury, WAICF’s honorary committee composed of fourteen eminent personalities from the tech industry, praised the high quality of the forty or so entries submitted, with many inspiring projects having a positive impact on society or the planet. This quality made the final choice of two projects per category difficult for the festival’s honorary committee, which was impressed by all the projects presented. The innovative character, the positive societal impact as well as an application project that has reached at least the first stage of deployment (Minimum Viable Product) are the three main criteria on which the jury made its choice.

THE NOMINEES OF THE ” CANNES NEURONS AWARDS ” BY CATEGORY ARE :

SUSTAINABLE AI” category

Alcemy GmbH – Machine Learning and process control automation to accelerate the decarbonization of cement and concrete
The project of Alcemy GmbH is based on the automatic learning of laboratory data from cement plants. The objective is to predict the most important quality property of cement and to reduce the variation of the compressive strength of cement during production. Thus, a stable and homogeneous production that promotes the application of low-carbon cement and concrete is possible.

Innovation Lab by LACROIX – Smart AI water leak & 1nomaly detection
This AI-based project aims at drastically saving water resources, significantly reducing drinking water wastage, gaining efficiency in the operational maintenance of the water network by limiting soil denaturation, non-renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The solution analyzes, with the help of AI, all the real-time data provided by the existing water infrastructure using a dedicated neural network, detects anomalies and sorts them from the most to the least problematic.

INCLUSIVE AI” category

Wizard.Ai
Wizard is an AI reliability platform that solves the robustness, fairness, and audibility problems of artificial intelligence. It automatically evaluates Machine Learning (ML) models across multiple statistical components and source data and then translates those results into a human-understandable output. This greatly helps ML engineers and the companies that build these models to ensure that the models are reliable and thus make decisions in a responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative manner at all levels.

Sama – Project Guideline
The Guideline Project aims to leverage machine learning on devices to help people who are blind or visually impaired to walk or run independently. The project is based on three elements: 1) a painted line on a pedestrian path, 2) a phone camera, 3) a machine learning algorithm that will send audio signals to the blind or visually impaired person in order to guide them and help them stay on track.

CREATIVE AI” category

ASC27 – Asimov: Artificial Intelligence Software for Media and Communication
The Asimov project aims to make the communication workflow smoother by leaving repetitive tasks to algorithms, focusing on human quality and bringing AI to all editorial teams. A specialized algorithm like Asimov allows a content creator for example to focus on more creative and analytical functions.

DMAI – Animal Island Learning Adventure (AILA) Sit & Play Preschool Learning System
The AILA Sit & Play Preschool Learning System combines a toddler-friendly device, cloud-based technology, next-generation cognitive AI and engaging content. It aims to leverage AI to help all stakeholders – teachers, parents, children, better prepare for the school environment using a digital environment.

WAICF’s honorary committee consists of:

TEKI AKUETTEH FALCONER – Senior Partner at Nsiah Akuetteh & Co. and Founder & Executive Director (AFRICA DIGITAL RIGHTS’ HUB)
MITRA AZIZIRAD – Corporate Vice President (MICROSOFT AI AND INNOVATION)
DR. FATMAH BAOTHMAN – Board President of AI Society (KING ABDULAZIZ UNIVERSITY)
MARNIE BENNEY – Independent Contemporary Art Curator
ROBERTO CINGOLANI – Italy’s Minister of Ecological Transition and Chief Technology & Innovation Officer (LEONARDO COMPANY)
PASCALE FUNG – Director of CAiRE (HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / HKUST)
DAVID GURLÉ – President (SYMPHONY)
YANN LE CUN – Vice-President and Chief AI Scientist (META AI)
JEAN MANE – President (V. MANE FILS)
WONKI MIN – Ambassador for Science, Technology & Innovation of the Republic of Korea (REPUBLIC OF KOREA)
FRANCESCA ROSSI – Fellow and AI Ethics Global Leader (IBM)
MICHAEL SCHÖNSTEIN – Head of Strategic Foresight and Analysis – German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
JOSEPH STIGLITZ – Co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress – OECD, Chief Economist (ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE)
DR. FEIYU XU – Senior Vice President, Global Head of Artificial Intelligence (SAP)