Recent breakthroughs have shown that AI can now prove theorems. At the same time, many of the deepest open questions about AI are, at heart, questions of mathematics and physics: high-dimensional geometry, non-convex optimisation, the statistical mechanics of learning. AI is becoming both a tool for and a subject of research in our fields, and a working knowledge of it is fast becoming essential for every young researcher.
This one-week school, funded by Qube Research & Technologies, will introduce the fundamental concepts of modern AI. It is designed for PhD students and early-career researchers in mathematics and theoretical physics with no prior specialisation in AI. The programme combines lectures with hands-on lab sessions.
Topics covered and lecturers (one day per topic)
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Fundamentals of AI: deep learning, neural networks. Lab session: training a simple neural network from scratch.
- Course: Christophe Giraud (Laboratoire de Mathématiques d'Orsay, Université Paris-Saclay)
- Lab session: TBA
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Generative AI / LLMs. Lab session: fine-tuning: adapting a pre-trained LLM to a specific task
- Course: Pierre Marion (Inria & École normale supérieure, Paris)
- Lab session: Gaëtan Narozniak (Inria & FAIR, Meta)
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AI-assisted research, agent-based AI
- Frédéric Marbach (Département de mathématiques et applications, École normale supérieure, Paris)
- Julia Kempe (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, NYU)
- Jorge Fernandez-de-Cossio-Diaz (Institut de Physique Théorique, CEA Saclay)
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Formal methods. Lab session: using LLM agents
- Scott Armstrong (Laboratoire Jacques-Louis Lions, Sorbonne Université and Courant Institute, NYU)
- Rémy Degenne (Inria, Université de Lille)
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Ethical, legal and environmental aspects of AI; limitations of AI
- Legal aspects: Arnaud Latil (Sciences, Normes, Démocratie, Sorbonne Université)
- Ethical aspects: Anouk Barberousse (Sciences, Normes, Démocratie, Sorbonne Université)
- Environmental aspects: TBA
Scientific Committee:
- Gérard Biau (Sorbonne University)
- Claire Boyer (University of Paris-Saclay)
- Djalil Chafaï (Dauphine, Paris Sciences et Lettres)
- Xavier Fresquet (Sorbonne University, Abu Dhabi)
- Arnaud Guillin (Clermont-Auvergne University)
- Marc Lelarge (École normale supérieure)
- Emmanuel Sérié (École Polytechnique)
Organising committee
- Jérémie Bouttier (IHP)
- Mariana Graña (IHP)
