Paris. 17 January 2019. Since 2014, Thales has invested nearly 7 billion euros in digital technologies, particularly in the areas of connectivity, Big Data, cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Artificial Intelligence and its opportunities in the aerospace, space, ground transportation, defence and security sectors will be the theme of the second Thales Media Day event in Montreal.
Professor Yoshua Bengio, Founder and Scientific Director of MILA (Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms), and Patrice Caine, Chairman & CEO of Thales, will speak at this global event, which will be broadcasted live on the Group’s YouTube channel.
Thales invests 20% of its annual revenues in R&D. After the first Thales Media Day dedicated to cybersecurity, which is an essential component of digital transformation, Thales is now demonstrating specific examples of the impact of Artificial Intelligence in decisive moments. The event is being held in Montreal, Canada and simultaneously in France, the UK, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and the Middle East.
Canada is a global leader in Artificial Intelligence, a sector that sees Montreal in particular, as a fast developing hub. The government of Canada, Province of Quebec and City of Montréal are working to expand and develop an already vibrant talent pool. To facilitate partnerships and encourage research, Thales has opened both its North American Digital Factory and the latest in its global network of laboratories for Artificial Intelligence research and technology in Montreal. Today, Thales has nearly 50 AI experts working in Canada and another 150 AI experts at its major research centres in France.
AI is ever more present in our daily lives. At the Thales Media Day event, Thales will demonstrate how AI can help the world meet the challenges of the future and enable humans to make better decisions in decisive moments while retaining a central role in the decision-making process. At Thales, Artificial Intelligence must be trustable, explainable and certifiable.
On Thursday January 24, 2019, Thales will demonstrate specific examples of the role of Artificial Intelligence in its technologies in Montreal. In addition to demonstrations of its products and solutions for the future, the event will include a series of round tables with leading experts from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), IVADO, the Université Laval in Quebec, Defence Research and Development Canada, the French national rail operator (SNCF) and Microsoft.
Round tables will focus on the following topics:
1. AI in transport: Welcome aboard the trains and planes of the future!
2. AI in defence: How can we help humans make better decisions?
3. Digital technologies and ethics: How can we make AI ethical and responsible?
4. Live from the Thales research and technology laboratory in Palaiseau!
5. Using AI in the cities of the future to serve citizens.
6. How can we make AI trustable, explainable and certifiable?
7. How is AI going to improve cybersecurity?
Demonstrations will cover all of Thales’s markets:
1. Tomorrow’s air traffic controllers better trained thanks to AI,
2. Intelligent video analytics for urban transportation,
3. Objective Mars: AI is powering the human Eye on the Red Planet,
4. Your personal entertainment system at 40k Feet,
5. AI in Thales smart sensors servicing all intelligence actors,
6. Applying AI to medical imaging. Letting practitioners get on with the most essential part of their job, the patient,
7. Rail transport: from automation to autonomy, stress free journeys thanks to AI,
8. Human Performance Monitoring: How AI improves training efficiency of helicopter pilots.
On Friday, January 25th, Thales will make an important announcement with CENTECH, Quebec’s largest start-up incubator.
“Artificial Intelligence will soon be at the centre of all of our daily lives. Our customers in the aerospace, space, ground transportation, defence and security sectors are in charge of systems that are critical to the security of our societies, so it is vitally important to ensure that AI works as intended, to explain why it behaves in a given way, and to verify its use. That is why Thales is committed to making AI trustable, explainable, certifiable and ethical.” Patrice Caine, Chairman & CEO, Thales.
