Thursday January 24: follow the Thales Media Day dedicated to Artificial Intelligence live!

The second Thales Media Day, on the theme of Artificial Intelligence, will be held in Montreal on January 24 in the presence of Patrice Caine, Chairman & CEO of Thales, and internationally renowned Artificial Intelligence expert Yoshua Bengio.

Thales experts will highlight to journalists from across the world the Group's development of explainable and certifiable Artificial Intelligence. You can follow this exceptional event live on social media.

What is the Thales Media Day?

The Thales Media Day is an annual event designed to increase the Group’s visibility and to underline our digital transformation capacities. The first Thales Media Day, focusing on cybersecurity, was organised at the Thales Learning Hub in Vélizy on April 11, 2018.

Artificial intelligence: great potential but many potential questions

Since 2014, Thales has invested nearly 7 billion euros in digital technologies, including Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence has sparked major excitement and great expectations but also poses a number of questions. This provides the theme of the second Thales Media Day event, which will shed light on the opportunities AI offers in all the Group’s markets, but also underlines why humans must retain a central role in the decision-making process and how to ensure this happens. Read some of the articles published in support of this event:

Demonstrations and round tables with Patrice Caine and Yoshua Bengio

In Montreal, Patrice Caine, the Group’s Chairman & CEO, will be joined as a speaker by the internationally renowned artificial intelligence expert Yoshua Bengio. Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence in the United Arab Emirates, will also participate by video. In addition to the Canadian event, simultaneous satellite events will take place in France, the UK, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and the Middle East, and the event will also be broadcast live on Thales's YouTube channel.

Artificial Intelligence will soon be at the centre of all of our daily lives. Our customers 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 explainable, verifiable and ethical."
Patrice Caine, Thales Chairman & CEO

The event will include a series of round tables with leading experts from Thales, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), MILA, the University of Laval in Quebec, the French national rail operator (SNCF) and Microsoft, as well as demonstrations of the Group’s products and solutions for the future.

Find out more about the topics for the demonstrations and round tables in the press release.

How to follow the AI Thales Media Day debates

On YouTube :
On January 24 janvier 2019, the Thales YouTube channel will broadcast:

  • 14h45 – 15h50 / CET time : Plenary session with Patrice Caine and Professor Yoshua Bengio
  • 15h55 – 16h30 / CET time :  "Live from the Thales Research and Technology Laboratory in Palaiseau” round table
  • 16h35 – 16h55 / CET time : "Tomorrow's air traffic controllers better trained thanks to AI" demonstration

Why Montreal?

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 (cortAix). Today, Thales has nearly 50 AI experts working in Canada and another 150 AI experts at its major research centres in France.

On Friday, January 25th, Thales will make an important announcement with CENTECH, Quebec's largest start-up incubator in the Artificial Intelligence field.