Groupe PSA, along with Amazon, Criteo, Facebook, Faurecia, Google, Microsoft, Naver Labs, Nokia Bell Labs, Suez, and Valeo, has joined with CNRS, Inria, and PSL University at the PRAIRIE Institute (PaRis Artificial Intelligence Research InstitutE).

The PRAIRIE Institute aims to bring together prominent scientific and corporate AI industry players to emerge as a global leader in the field. Groupe PSA is the first carmaker in the organization and intends to actively participate in its initiatives. The group is convinced that artificial intelligence (AI) is at the center of a deep transformation taking place in the automotive industry and shaping the future of mobility.

“Working with the scientific community to bring academic and business interests together is part of Groupe PSA’s DNA as an innovator,” said Carla Gohin, Vice President, Research & Innovation. “We’re proud to be the first car manufacturer to join the PRAIRIE Institute, whose holistic approach will enable us to develop our AI capabilities and move faster to open up the realm of possibilities for automotive applications.” 

The institute is pursuing three goals: to make a significant contribution to driving progress in fundamental knowledge in AI freely distributed among the international scientific community; to take part in solving concrete problems with a major application-related impact; and to contribute to training in the field of artificial intelligence. The five-year objective is to bring together AI scientific and industrial leaders and make the PRAIRIE Institute a world leader in AI.

The work done at the institute will highlight an integrated approach to the two traditional branches of research: upstream research, calling on partner facilities of excellence in France and abroad; and research focusing on companies and applications, drawing on industrial partners, who are often also leaders in their fields. Integration between research topics is intended to facilitate synergy between the two branches of the PRAIRIE Institute and will enable researchers to make the transition easily from one to the other.

At an international level, the PRAIRIE Institute will draw on a network of partnerships with centers of AI excellence to promote exchanges and leverage its impact. Collaborative agreements have already been signed with the Center for Data Science at NYU, the artificial intelligence laboratory of UC Berkeley (BAIR), the robotics institute at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, MILA in Montréal, the Max Planck Institute in Tübingen, the CIIRC (Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics), and the Turing Institute in London.

The institute will be open to future academic and industrial members and will also offer a participation program for innovative SMEs and start-ups, as well as the possibility for large groups to create joint laboratories. It is expected to play an active part in all national initiatives around artificial intelligence. It will aim to promote links between its members and exchanges with the other disciplines concerned with AI, more particularly through specific events such as workshops and seminars, as required.

Finally, the institute will make training one of its core concerns. Initial and continuing training needs in the field of AI are great, and the PRAIRIE Institute has a vital role to play in the higher education landscape, one that is more specifically assumed by its academic members.