Paris, London, Munich, March 15, 2023 - Helsing, Europe’s leading defence and artificial intelligence company, today announced that senior Meta executive Antoine Bordes is joining the company as VP Artificial Intelligence.
As former director of AI research at Meta, Antoine brings over a decade of experience building and leading exceptional AI teams across the United States and Europe. Throughout his career as researcher and then research director, he has a proven ability to build and lead cutting edges AI research projects and teams, and to effectively bridge the gap between research and cutting-edge applications.
At Helsing, Bordes will head the company’s team of AI researchers and deep tech engineers developing cognitive technologies for existing and new defence platforms, equipping them for modern software-defined requirements.
Helsing, which has operations in France, Germany, and the UK, has built one of the largest deep tech teams in Europe since it was founded in 2021. Its software transforms the capabilities of existing and new equipment, resulting in order-of-magnitude capability gains
Bordes, who was Meta’s most senior AI expert in Europe and the company’s global co-managing director of its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab, is joining a growing number of Helsing employees who do not have a traditional defence background.
Antoine Bordes, VP of Artificial Intelligence at Helsing, says: “Building up Meta's AI research team and working with some of the best and brightest deep tech experts in the world has been a privilege. Now I am excited to be in France and support Helsing's efforts to develop cutting-edge AI. Joining Helsing felt like the obvious choice for me. I am a big believer in the potential of Europe when we all work together towards a common goal. At Helsing, I was immediately captivated by the company's mission. I'm impressed by the calibre of people in the company and by the ambition of everyone. Leaving Meta was a tough decision, but with the ongoing war in mainland Europe, I felt it was time to join Helsing's mission. It has never been more urgent for European democracies to lead in the development of defence technology to ensure we are ready to tackle conflicts of tomorrow. I strongly believe that building ethical military-grade AI is a challenge that we as open societies must master.”
Commenting on the appointment, Helsing Co-Founder and President Niklas Köhler, says: “We are delighted that Antoine Bordes is joining our mission to protect our democracies. As open societies, we have a special obligation to develop and deploy transformative technologies in an ethically responsible way, and we are proud that the world’s top talent – like Antoine – is making their deep expertise available to help us achieve this goal together.”
About Helsing:
Helsing is a new type of defence company, focusing on developing software-based capabilities to protect our democracies. With a diverse and experienced team of engineers and AI talent, Helsing partners with governments and hardware manufacturers to deploy mission-enhancing software. Helsing funds its own research and technology development, which allows it to undertake its own R&D at scale, applying the speed of software development cycles to mission challenges in defence. It employs AI and software to enable faster and more accurate decision-making, and the exploitation of data at the tactical, operational, and strategic level. With operations in the UK, Germany, and France, Helsing accesses software and AI talent from across Europe, while serving each country’s specific sovereign requirements.
