Research and teaching chairs in Artificial Intelligence

At the end of the "AI for Humanity" day held in Paris on 29 March 2018, during which the President of the French Republic delivered a speech on artificial intelligence (AI), a national programme for AI was initiated with a major research component.

A multi-year programme of 40 Chairs in Artificial Intelligence (IA Chairs) is one of the measures under this research component, which was presented on 28 November 2018 by the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and the Secretary of State for Digital Technology.

The national program for AI aims to ensure that the best talents choose to settle permanently in France and can, in turn, train future generations of AI researchers and professionals in jobs that remain largely to be imagined.

The call for "Research and Teaching chairs in artificial intelligence (AI Chairs)" aims precisely to offer French and foreign researchers, with the support of host institutions, substantial resources to build a team and carry out an ambitious project whose visible impact is expected.

These AI research and teaching chairs must be outside the 3IA institutes, and coherently integrated into the hosting laboratories. They must actively participate in the actions of the national AI research network coordinated by Inria.

It is specified that the Defence Innovation Agency (AID) may co-finance 4 Chairs as part of the Defence Innovation Strategy in AI on themes specified in the call text.