The PostGenAI@Paris cluster wins France’s “AI-Cluster” call: an ambitious academic project led by Sorbonne University

Faced with the challenges posed by the most recent advances in artificial intelligence, several academic institutions with complementary expertise have come together to form the PostGenAI@Paris cluster. This consortium capitalizes on the experience and success of the Sorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI). Created by the Sorbonne University Alliance in 2019, SCAI is supported by more than 60 industrial partners.

The PostGenAI@Paris project was developed to respond to the challenges posed by recent advances in AI. Today the boundaries between technology and human intelligence are gradually becoming indistinct. This new era of “post-generative AI” goes beyond content generation to the ability to understand and interact in a manner that is more autonomous and contextually better adapted to its environment. While this will bring scientific and technological progress, it also raises profound concerns and deep questions linked to trust, regulation and even the ethics of AI. The cluster covers three main areas: disruptive technologies, health and resilient societies.

The implementation of the PostGenAI@Paris scientific program is based on two main pillars. The first pillar takes the form of 21 Collaborative Acceleration Programs (CAPs) that can closely link research, education and innovation. As the foundation of the cluster, these CAPs are directly involved in the development of educating through research, while promoting industrial collaboration on cutting-edge subjects.

The second pillar of the PostGenAI@Paris cluster is a transversal program, designed to encourage interconnection between the members of the consortium and guarantee the agility and evolution of the cluster. PostGenAI@Paris plans to assert itself as an international center of excellence by 2030, with transversal expertise in the field of AI and a robust network of socio-economic collaboration. Through all these actions, the cluster will participate in the education of the next generations by significantly increasing the number of students trained in AI each year and at all levels.

The PostGenAI@Paris cluster, led by Sorbonne University, is a major project that brings together academic institutions around a common and lasting strategy in terms of research, education and innovation. The diversity of actors participating in this consortium makes it possible to include areas of expertise ranging from mathematics and computer science to engineering, health, law and even political science.

The cluster brings together members of the Sorbonne University Alliance: Sorbonne University, the Compiègne University of Technology (UTC), the National Museum of Natural History–MNHN, the Paris Boulogne Higher Center for Artistic Education- Billancourt, France Education International, INSEAD, ENSCi-Les Ateliers, CNRS, INRIA, INSERM, IRD). Other leading academic institutions with complementary expertise have also joined, such as AP-HP, University of Paris -Panthéon-Assas, the Cnam, Sciences Po, or even the Court of Cassation, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, Ircam, the IEA, Onera, the Mathematical Sciences Foundation of Paris, and the Social, Economic and Environmental Council.  

Alongside its major academic partners, the PostGenAI@Paris cluster benefits from the participation of leading institutional players as well as the support of more than 60 industrial partners (startups, SMEs, large groups), who have committed more than 32 million euros in financing.

“PostGenAI@Paris recognizes the AI strategy that Sorbonne University possesses through SCAI. This project will allow us not only to sustain our actions in education, research and innovation, but also to expand our partners beyond the members of the Sorbonne University Alliance. In this way, we will be able to structure and complete our continuing education offer, by integrating law and economics, as well as accelerate the transfer of our expertise to the socio-economic world.”
- Nathalie Drach-Temam, president of Sorbonne University.

About SCAI:

SCAI is the AI center of the Sorbonne University Alliance located in the heart of Paris, on the Pierre and Marie Curie campus of Sorbonne University. This Center brings together the communities of the three faculties of Sorbonne University, in arts & humanities, science & engineering and health sciences, as well as the members of the Sorbonne University Alliance. In a national and international context of competition in artificial intelligence, SCAI brings together a strategic set of modern artificial intelligence disciplines in the heart of Paris and at Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi. SCAI is directed by Gérard Biau, professor at Sorbonne University