A computer engineer whose company BS Digital, hosted in Helioparc, has developed software (AMIcompta) integrating around twenty AI models to make it “an intelligent assistant” to which the accountant-client can ask questions by chat.
These were some of the presentations attended by the hundreds of registrants – students, researchers and professionals – at the 6e IA Pau festival, on the theme “AI and society”, which was held on Friday December 6 at the Palais Beaumont at the initiative of the IA Pau association.
Opportunities and threats
In addition to interventions from several local stakeholders, a round table (“AI and work: opportunities and changes”) was on the program, as well as a conference by CNRS researcher Malik Gallab, “AI between opportunities and threats”. The morning was devoted to workshops with ambiguous titles: “Boost your business with AI”, “What to do about the environmental impact of AI?” », “Assess the digital maturity of your company”.
In short, a vast brainstorm on artificial intelligence, while its all-out development poses dizzying ethical questions.
“We are immersed in this ecosystem but we are not pro-AI. We work on frugal AI, on ethical issues and environmental impact »
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“We are convinced of the interest of this field, but our approach aims to inform the public in complete transparency about its potential and its social, ethical, economic and environmental risks,” explains the association, which does not want to be “a “another professional association intended to promote AI.”
“We are immersed in this ecosystem but we are not pro-AI. We work on frugal AI, on ethical issues and impact on the environment,” explains Garance Dupouy, the only employee of IA Pau which has around fifteen members, numerous financial and institutional partners (Teréga, TotalEnergies, Region, University, etc.) and is closely linked to the Helioparc technology park.
The festival is the flagship event of the association created in 2018 and directed by Nicolas Girardin, an intellectual property consultant passionate about the subject. He came to the podium to explain his desire to “popularize AI” and connect all the players in research and the economy likely to work on the subject.
“Data challenges” (also called hackathons) are regularly organized, where young computer scientists or other researchers work together in teams. Students recounted how 400 of them from all over the South-West, divided into 27 teams, had participated in a week of “workshop” (joint workshops) in Bordeaux for companies and organizations, like of a trio which made it possible to design a tool, a sort of interactive organization chart, for the Humans by nature association.
