On Monday March 27, Françoys Labonté, CEO of the Centre de Recherche Informatique de Montréal (CRIM), gave a talk in Quebec City on the challenges faced by the ecosystem of companies, manufacturers and researchers in adopting artificial intelligence.
“There’s a movement coming out of Europe made up of AI players who have paved the way towards Trusted AI. This movement is knocking on Quebec’s door. Why have we come to want to associate the word trust with artificial intelligence, and what does this notion imply? What changes are in store? These are the questions addressed at the conference. an acceleration program for the adoption of artificial intelligence, aimed primarily at SMEs.
80% of projects remain proofs of concept, and are not industrialized. – Françoys Labonté, CRIM CEO
“With all the advances in artificial intelligence, we think we can do a lot of things, but the reality on the ground is that when it comes to integrating AI into real enterprise products and solutions, the rate of deployed projects is not very high. 80% of projects remain proofs of concept, and that’s not industrialized,” says Labonté, interviewed a few days before the conference. The challenges? Trusted AI, biases, ethics, sustainability, in regulated fields such as aeronautics, for example, where we need to demonstrate compliance and respect for standards in terms of robustness and traceability, explains the CEO of CRIM, who is working on these realities.
“The transition from research to industrialization, which is not very well understood, calls for the development of practices, tools and ways of doing things, since advances in research are very rapid. But CRIM is working precisely to make it possible to implement them in industrial contexts.”
NUMERIA
In September 2022, CRIM launched the NUMERIA program to help SMEs with their first artificial intelligence project. CScience spoke to Mathieu Barreau, CRIM’s Director of Business, Communications and Partnerships, to find out more about the program’s aims and concrete benefits.
“NUMERIA is an acceleration program for the adoption of artificial intelligence, aimed primarily at SMEs,” explains Mathieu Barreau, Director, Business, Communications and Partnerships at CRIM.
(…) today, when you’re an SME, it’s very difficult to gain access to scientific knowledge or knowledge related to artificial intelligence research. – Mathieu Barreau, Director, Business, Communications and Partnerships at CRIM.
The program addresses three issues. “First, there’s access to knowledge: today, when you’re an SME, it’s very difficult to gain access to scientific knowledge or knowledge related to artificial intelligence research. There’s also the question of the labor shortage, which is a major issue in our industry, and, finally, there’s probably a lack of preliminary preparation on the part of some companies before embarking on a project.”
Through NUMERIA, CRIM puts prospective adopters in touch with an expert in artificial intelligence, who they can consult to assess the advantages of integrating AI into their business, and the viability of their project. “We provide a framework for this reflection.
*Articlewritten by Chloé-Anne Touma and published on CScience on March 28, 2023.