Strengthening AI Engineering at Naval Group
Sebastien ROUSSET, AI Director, Naval Group
“Confiance.ai has produced the methodological and software components essential to the implementation of a tool-based engineering method required for the design / realization of a system integrating AI.”
The adoption of AI in the defense field requires compliance with operational doctrines, human validation and appropriate explicability to win the trust of sailors. Confiance.ai has enabled Naval Group to strengthen its systems while integrating rigorous methods into its engineering processes.
AI adoption issues specific to Naval Group
For defense-specific AIs to be adopted, they must respect the doctrine applicable to the operational context. In particular, these AIs must be subordinate to a final human decision. Naval Group’s expert sailors also need to have confidence in these AIs, which requires appropriate explicability. Finally, compliance with a qualification reference system co-constructed with the DGA is imperative for adoption.
Products and services affected by the Confiance.ai program
All systems delivered by Naval Group are impacted by Confiance.ai. The combat management system is impacted first, but the mission systems, iMaintenance solution, Cyber status management and platform management are also within the applicable scope of trust. AI designed to enhance Naval Group’s competitiveness will also be subject to the principles laid down by Confiance.ai.
Confiance.ai’s contribution to Naval Group’s strategy and challenges
The challenge is to integrate into Naval Group’s systems engineering process a tool-based method for specifying, designing, “developing”, integrating, validating and qualifying AIs. The aim is for Naval Group to appropriate all Confiance.ai’s methodological and software components and apply them locally, with seamless integration into their business management system.
Competitive advantages developed with Confiance.ai
In its role as a systems integrator, Naval Group can legitimately position itself for industrial integration, or at the very least, for the support of AIs delivered by all players in the naval defense and new defense ecosystem. This industrial integration will be framed by the proper application of the Confiance.ai methodology.
Challenges and conditions for success for the next phase of the Confiance.ai program
For Naval Group, the challenges ahead for the Confiance.ai program include industrializing, sustaining and integrating the methodological and software components developed, extending research into other areas of AI, particularly generative AI, and carrying out additional work on the embeddability of models and the preservation of trust during transfer learning or onboard learning.
Example of current or future implementation/deployment
Adapting the company’s methodological guides to take AI into account.
Accelerating AI Act compliance with the Confiance.ai program
Naval Group wants the Confiance.ai application to ensure de facto compliance with the IA Act, and with regulatory and standards compliance in general. Naval Group is also looking for an end-to-end methodology, from risk analysis to tool-based construction of compliance.
