AI & Defense, what is at stake?

Preligens, a company founded in 2016, develops cutting-edge technological solutions to meet national and international security challenges. Explanations with Preligens' co-founder and president, Arnaud Guérin.

Why did you create Preligens?

Both training engineers, we created Preligens with my partner Renaud Allioux, based on the observation that while huge investments were being made in sensors (satellites, drones, etc.), little money was being spent on analysing the data from these sensors. Intelligence analysts were therefore quickly faced with a "tsunami" of data from multiple sources and we had the idea of using artificial intelligence to automate the analysis and direct experts to unusual events requiring their expertise.

Who do you mainly work for?

Today, our activity is 100% dedicated to the Defence and intelligence sector. We have customers in France and abroad. For example, our solution has been installed at the DRM (Direction du Renseignement Militaire) in France and at the NIFC (NATO Intelligence Fusion Center) at NATO. We also work with the United States, Great Britain and the European Union.

What solutions do you offer in concrete terms?

We offer artificial intelligence solutions capable of detecting objects of military interest (armoured vehicles, aircraft, ships, etc.) on strategic sites such as airports, ports or training camps. Our software continuously analyzes the satellite image stream. Our algorithms are trained on commercial images and we can then install the software at our customers' sites. This pioneering technology, made available to analysts, assists them in developing intelligence of military interest and helps them anticipate threats by setting up monitoring and warning mechanisms. Our clients thus have greater efficiency in assessing situations and making decisions.

What are the challenges you face?

We have to be convinced! Our technology based on artificial intelligence is new, so there is a lot of work to do in terms of teaching and explaining it to our customers in general and our end users in particular. It is essential to explain that this tool is not intended to replace human know-how but to serve it. Our software allows armies to increase their surveillance and intelligence capabilities by processing the growing volume of data coming from new sensors and by relieving experts of the most repetitive tasks.

At a time when artificial intelligence is more than ever in the spotlight, what role do you have to play?

We are witnessing a true data revolution, so we must take the right turn. Our goal? To give our clients the means to avoid being left behind in this technological war. Artificial intelligence is a major step forward and we want to help France and its allies to be ahead of the game.

How are you positioning yourself internationally?

Our ambition is to develop massively abroad and we are strongly encouraged by the French Ministry of the Army. We are investing heavily to stay at the cutting edge and continually improve our solutions. With 60 data scientists, we now have the largest 1A team for defence in Europe. Our goal is to maintain performance and to integrate our customers' operational experience to reinforce the relevance of our solutions.