Gérard Biau is the director of SCAI - the Sorbonne Center for Artificial Intelligence. He has worked closely with the University of Sydney to organise research collaborations centered on AI, including a joint conference on Quantum AI last November.

"Our partnership in artificial intelligence with the University of Sydney is essential for us." He says. "It was initiated more than a year ago through discussions, workshops and virtual events  organized togethe, and ultimately seeks to build on the areas of excellence in our two universities."

Collaboration in AI quickly evolved into a tighter focus on Quantum Machine Learning, i.e. using quantum algorithms within machine learning methods. Biau notes that "QML methods will take advantage of  qubits and quantum operations to improve both calculation speed and data storage used by algorithms in AI models. The use of those techniques provides important theoretical problems that a synergy between the two institutions could be able to answer, at least partially."

Exciting upcoming projects are also in the pipeline. "The next step will be to set up joint fellowships and longer periods of exchanges for researchers and students - in both Paris and Sydney - to explore in greater depth the mathematical and computational challenges of this field."