Jean-Daniel Kant

AI Researcher. TRYING TO TACKLE the world's complexity

Welcome to my page !

I am an associate professor, First Class with Habilitation, at Sorbonne University Sciences, Paris, France.

I work at the Computer Science Laboratory (LIP6), to do research on artificial intelligence and cognitive sciences.

 

My research focuses on the study of human complex systems, that is trying to model, simulate and understand human behaviors, economies  and societies.

How can we fight unemployment more effectively? Will automation via robots and algorithms take our jobs? How can we find new ways to fight global warming and preserve biodiversity? These questions have in common their complexity in the sense of complex systems: by definition they are difficult to study and impossible to predict.

 

In my research , I designed a method to address these complex, yet crucial issues for our societies, using a particular form of artificial intelligence called multi-agent simulation. The idea is to provide an innovative method for designing and evaluating policies (of all kinds) in a virtual world, before their implementation in the real world.

 

Specificities of my approach

 

My approach is strongly   multidisciplinary and relies heavily on modelling of individual and social behaviors, from theories derived from economics, sociology, cognitive and social psychology, biology, environmental sciences, etc.

 

Agent-based models enable to design decision-aid tools that are fully explainable Artificial Intelligence systems, to help the decision maker to build better products or design better policies.

 

Do you want to know more ?

Look at the research section to find about my projects on labor markets, digital automation, environment and climat change or diffusion of innovations.

 

You may also watch my TEDx Talk (in French) that introduces my research on AI and complex systems.

 

Research.

TerraNeon

An innovative approach to reduce the human impact on Climate and Earth

How can we effectively combat global warming and preserve biodiversity? The TerraNeon project aims to design a decision-making tool to help companies and public bodies reduce their environmental footprint efficiently.

With TerraNeon, you can test different ideas and compare their effects, costs and social acceptability, thanks to a clear interface based on scientifically founded indicators.

Do you want to know more ?

TerraNeon Website

NumJobs

Studying the impact of digital automation on labor with a multi-agent simulation

This project is a collaboration between the Multi-Agent Systems team of LIP6, and Pôle Emploi, the French leading public employment service and the Panthéon-Assas University (CRED). NumJobs aims to model and simulate the impact of digital technology, and in particular of Artificial Intelligence (AI), on employment, using a multi-agent system.

To do so, we have proposed a complete multi-agent model of entire French economy, including :

  • A new labor market model, extendeding our WorkSim model with skills and tasks at the core.
  • Production of consumer goods, capital goods and capital goods. We add goods markets and consumption, as well as a simplified banking system to have loans to firms and households. Finally, a public sector represents the state (tax policies, subsidies, etc.).
  • A lot of work has been done on the data, not only for labor, but also for consumption, production, and the articulation between these different elements. Fine-grained initialization and calibration procedures allow to better validate the model.

Do you want to know more ?

NumJobs Website

WorkSim

An agent-based model of the French labor market

Started in 2006, WorkSim is the most comprehensive labor market simulator available, including individual and corporate behavior, institutions and labor laws. One of the strong points is the endogenization of risk when choosing between a fixed-term or permanent job. We have calibrated it on real data and used it to evaluate public policies, such as the generation contract. In 2016, we were the only ones to propose a quantitative evaluation of the "El Khomri" labor law, proposed by the French government in 2016. This work has been cited and recognized by the IMF and the European Commission.

Major results

  • the most complete computational model of a labor market, a new calibration method in economics, evaluation of several public policies
  • 26 publications [2 international journals, 2 chapters, 1 national journal, 14 international conferences, 7 national conferences].

Do you want to know more ?

WorkSim Website

Diffusion of Innovations

A novel agent-based approach to study the diffusion of innovations

Partnership with Orange Labs (Orange group, World Telecommunication leader)(2005-2009)

We designed COBAN, one of the most comprehensive and complete simulation model for the diffusion of any kind of innovation. Coban encodes people's beliefs through associative networks, in order to compute agents attitude and make adoption decision. We also proposed the first method to generate automatically a social network generator from statistical field data.

We also proposed the first method to generate automatically a social network generator from statistical field data.

Major results

  • first and most complete agent-based computational models of attitude and opinion dynamics, study of the diffusion of high-tech innovations on real data,
  • 11 publications [1 international journal, 1 chapter, 8 international conferences, 1 national conference]

Opinion and attitude Dynamics

How to study opinion and attitude dynamics with an agent-based model

Partnership with Airbus Defence and Space (2012-2015)

How would a population react when they are faced with information whether from a government or a company (ads) about e.g. an action, a product, an innovation ? This could be tackled through a core concept in social psychology: attitude dynamics. In this project, we propose a multi-agent based simulation model that will help us to better comprehend attitudes dynamics. Our goal is to articulate the cognitive and emotional dimensions of attitudes within a population.

Major results

  • attitude model with emotion and cognition, calibrated on real data
  • 7 publications [1 international journal, 1 chapter, 4 international conferences, 1 national conference]

My Vita

JD Kant's Vita

News and Talks.

  • September 2023 - The TerraNeon website in online (in French ; English version available soon)
  • Feb 10 2023 - I gave a talk at the frAIday Seminar entitled "How to make better decisions in a complex world?"". Slides.
  • May 19 2022 - As part of the 75 years of Computer Science organized by the LIP6, I gave a talk (in French). I presented my approach of artificial intelligence to model complex systems. The video is here.
  • May 2022 - I will present the results of the NumJobs project at a conference organized by the European Labour Authority. NumJobs is an agent-based model to study the impact of digital automation on labor.

Media

  • May 2022 - As part of the 75 years of Computer Science organized by the LIP6, I gave a talk (in French). I presented my approach of artificial intelligence to model complex systems. The video is here.
  • April 2021 - I gave a talk on Artificial Intelligence entitled "A critique of pure Artificial Intelligence" at the Conference on The Great Inventions that Changed the World-Informatics
  • October 2020 - New paper on WorkSim published in the JASSS journal
  • November 2019 - I was invited by the Université of Rouen (UTLC) to give a talk on Artificial Intelligence. The slides are here . Video Here (in French).
  • Mars 2019 - I gave a talk at the Agence Française pour le développement (AFD) in Paris on the validation of agent-based simulations.
  • February 2019 - Gérard Ballot and I were invited to give a talk on the impact of digital and AI on labor markets for the kick-off meeting of Human Resource Focus Group of Hub France IA.
  • November 2018 - AI for president ? Find out in this press article for which I was interviewed and talks about WorkSim and NumJobs (in French ; from Science et Vie, a French scientific magazine for the general public)
  • October 2018 : Launch of the NumJobs project, where AI techniques (agent-based simulation) are used to study the impact of ... AI on work and labor markets ! Partnership with Pôle Emploi.
  • June 2018 - This press article talks about WorkSim ! (Les Echos Journal, the reference French daily economic newspaper, in French)
  • March 2018 - I recently gave a TEDx Conference on Artificial Intelligence (in French).
    The video is here : http://bit.ly/TEDxJDK
  • September 29 2017 - I gave (with G. Ballot) a talk at OECD, NAEC Innovation Lab Workshop - slides
  • June 2017 - I was invited for a seminar at Oxford University and at Kingston University to present WorkSim
  • February 2017 - Our evaluation of the French Labor "El Khomri" law with WorkSim is cited by the European Commission (Country Report France 2017 p. 33)
  • Jan 2017 - I was auditioned by a joint commission of French National Assembly and Senate to discuss issues about Artificial Intelligence (program and videos here )
  • July 2016 - Our evaluation of the French Labor "El Khomri" law with our multiagent simulation tool WorkSim is cited by IMF (IMF Country Report No. 16/228 p.20- pdf)
  • March 2018 - I gave a TEDx Conference on Artificial Intelligence (in French). The video is : here
  • Jan 2017 - I was auditioned by a joint commission of French National Assembly and Senate to discuss issues about Artificial Intelligence (program and videos here )
  • May 2016 - Video Interview on WorkSim and the El Khomri Law evaluation (+133 000 views on youtube)
  • March 2018 - Several papers about WorkSim in the French Press : here

Publications.

Recent Publications (on HAL)

Teaching.

MOSIMA : agent-based modelling and simulation course - Computer Science Master 2nd year (in French)

Contact.

Jean-Daniel Kant

  • First Class Associate Professor in Computer Science, with Habilitation
  • Maître de Conférences Hors Classe HDR