École Polytechnique and Google join together in new French push for AI research

École Polytechnique and Google France announce the creation of an International Academic and Research Chair in the field of artificial intelligence. The Artificial Intelligence and Visual Computing Chair is part of President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to make France a global leader in AI research.

This new Chair, funded by Google France, aims to support the training of a new generation of talents in artificial intelligence, in terms of training, research and international outreach.

The new Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Visual Computing Master’s program of École Polytechnique, offered in partnership with Inria, ENSTA ParisTech and Télécom ParisTech, will benefit from support as it welcomes its first class in September 2018. Google France will offer students opportunities in its research internship programs. AI awareness seminars in ethics and law, as well as roundtables and workshops, will also be conducted to allow students to succeed in the professional world and in scientific research in the field of AI.

École Polytechnique’s research projects in artificial intelligence will be also supported by the Chair through the funding of a position of a young professor-researcher with the potential to tackle the new challenges presented by AI.

An invitation program for world-renowned professors will also be funded by the Chair to support these research activities and to enrich the academic offer of the Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Visual Computing Master’s program. Finally, the sponsorship of Google France will enable l’X and Google to organize seminars on artificial intelligence topics, as well on scientific, technical, ethical and societal themes.

For Jacques Biot, President of École Polytechnique, “This 25th Chair reflects our institution’s ability to work in close interaction with the business world in order to advance knowledge for the benefit of society, and to foster the employability of our students. It is an additional piece in the powerful device deployed by l’X to support the development of artificial intelligence. We thank Google, which support demonstrates its interest in our training and research at the best international level.”

According to Sébastien Missoffe, Google France Managing Director, “France has long maintained a scientific culture of excellence and has contributed to the spread of knowledge around the world. It has all the assets to become a champion in the field of digital technologies, and we are determined to contribute to its success: by opening our research center in artificial intelligence in Paris, the 3rd in the world, and we wish to collaborate with the French scientific ecosystem. The creation of this Chair in collaboration with École Polytechnique will strengthen the French ecosystem and enable artificial intelligence to benefit to everyone.”

Marie-Paule Cani, Professor at École Polytechnique and the Chairholder, said: “This Chair will allow us to take advantage of the French excellence in research-based training and of dual skills computer science – mathematics, to bring out a generation of young talents who will create the digital professions of tomorrow.”

Olivier Bousquet, head of machine learning research at Google Research Europe, comments: “The Artificial Intelligence & Visual Computing Academic and Research Chair aims to combine Google researchers’ skills with the culture of academic excellence of École Polytechnique in order to train the next generation of researchers in artificial intelligence and make France a leading country in this field.”