CRIM (Centre de recherche informatique de Montréal) today announced a major step forward in its Confiance IA initiative, with the formalization of a strategic partnership with the Institut de Recherche Technologique SystemX, host of the French Confiance.ai program. This collaboration follows on from the commitments made when a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed on March 7, 2024, in the presence of Michèle Boisvert, Quebec’s Delegate General in Paris.
The Confiance.ai program aims to develop tools, methods and approaches for designing, testing and validating “trustworthy” artificial intelligence systems, adapted to critical industrial applications and subject to strict regulatory requirements. The sustainability of this work will be ensured by the European Trustworthy AI Association, which adopts an open-source development model. CRIM thus becomes the first Quebec (and Canadian) member of this European association.
On the Quebec side, the Confiance AI initiative is entering a new “maturation” phase, aimed at making deliverables more generic and interoperable for all consortium members. This work will focus in particular on the reproducibility, performance characterization, generalization and functional improvement of the tools developed.
This milestone was made possible by $360,000 in funding from the Ministère de l’Économie, de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie (MEIE), plus a $240,000 industrial contribution from members of the Confiance IA consortium.
This support will enable us to accelerate maturation work and integrate certain tools from the French Confiance.ai program.
As part of this partnership, SystemX becomes a formal partner of Confiance IA, and will allocate technical resources to ensure effective transfer of technology and know-how. This transfer is supported by a financial agreement between the two organizations, strengthening the links between the Quebec and French innovation ecosystems.
“This collaboration embodies our shared desire to build responsible, ethical and sustainable artificial intelligence, at the service of industries here and abroad,” emphasizes Françoys Labonté, CEO of CRIM.
“This partnership confirms the conversion of the results of our work into tangible value for our industrial and R&D partners on an international scale, as well as its spin-off through the Safenai start-up,” adds Paul Labrogère, Managing Director of SystemX.
CRIM is thus reaffirming its leadership role in the development of trusted AI, in line with the priorities of the MEIE’s Stratégie québécoise de recherche, d’innovation et d’investissement (SQRI2).