Grant: Canada First Research Excellence Fund

In order to advance Canadian priorities, the R3AI program led by IVADO will develop and apply a much needed novel artificial intelligence (AI) that is Robust, Reasoning and Responsible.Why? AI is predicted to have major and increasing impacts on our social systems, environment, and economies. However, two major obstacles prevent Canada and other countries from maximizing its positive impacts, calling for a paradigm shift. The first hurdle is the insufficient robustness of current AI when deployed in uncertain "out-of-distribution" settings. The second issue is the misalignment between the deployment and adoption of AI and the ethical, organizational, social, cultural, and legal factors that frame the way it should be implemented.How? With the academic and institutional support of UdeM, HEC, Poly, ULaval, and McGill, R3AI will bring world-leading multidisciplinary researchers and implementation experts to tackle these challenges. The first will be addressed by fostering the collaboration of AI and cognitive neuroscience experts to better understand and narrow the gap between current AI and human intelligence. The second will be overcome by developing the science of AI adoption, with particular attention put towards ensuring that AI is deployed responsibly and that AI innovations are aligned with equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) objectives and are moreover co-built in real-life situations with end users, members of underrepresented groups, and Indigenous Peoples.What? To mobilize R3AI in sectors of strategic importance for Canada, IVADO will implement the new AI design and adoption strategies in three key priority sectors in which the 5 partners have major strengths: (1) Useful New Molecules - reduce the time and cost of discovering new drugs, e.g. those needed to fight future pandemics and antimicrobial resistance, as well as help to discover the materials required to achieve carbon neutrality; (2) Environmental Emergencies - decipher and predict biodiversity data to mitigate climate change and improve global health; and (3) Health Systems - develop predictive, explainable, and causal health models generalizable across communities and organizations that will have critical outcomes for patients and health systems. R3AI will provide solutions to logistics and supply chain challenges cross-cutting these 3 priority sectors.