Portrait: Marion, AI Doctor at Wikit

At Wikit, we know that technological innovation comes first and foremost from the talent that makes it possible. Our employees are at the heart of our success, and we're proud to spotlight those who drive our solution forward on a daily basis. Today, meet Marion Schaeffer, PhD in AI, at Wikit, who shares with us her background, her role and her vision of generative AI.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your career?

My name is Marion, I'm 26 and I'm a research and development engineer at Wikit. I studied mathematics and computer engineering at INSA Rouen Normandie. When I graduated, I wanted to move closer to the south of France, so I joined Wikit.

After a year as an engineer, I started a CIFRE thesis with Wikit and the LITIS laboratory at INSA Rouen Normandie. 3 years (and a few bonus months) later, I'm a doctor in computer science.

How long have you been working at Wikit and what are your main day-to-day responsibilities?

I’ve been with Wikit for over four years. My work primarily involves scientific monitoring and research in natural language processing. When I was working as an engineer, the topics I covered were very broad. They narrowed during my thesis, when I focused on large language models (LLMs) and knowledge graphs (KGs).

How would you describe your role in the Wikit solution?

My role isto explore new technological avenues to continuously improve the performance of the tools offered in the Wikit solution, particularly the Wikit Semantics component. By monitoring technological and scientific developments, I stay up to date on the latest trends to test various solutions, which may or may not be selected by the product team. We must ensure the use of state-of-the-art models that deliver cutting-edge performance, while also offering innovative systems toenhance reliability and reduce the environmental impact of the agents we market.

What do you like best about Wikit?

What I like about Wikit is definitely the work environment. I love the R&D team I work in. We have very few layers of hierarchy, which makes it very easy to talk to each other. The pace of our work is flexible, and we're also free to choose the themes we work on and the methodology we use to tackle them.

How do you see generative AI and chatbots evolving over the next few years, and where does Wikit fit in?

The use of generative AI is only going to grow. Whether in chatbots, personal assistants, or other applications, I believe generative algorithms will continue to spread and make headlines. Wikit will play a central role in this evolution, as we are committed to offering reliable and responsible solutions. Understanding these technologies is essential to getting the most out of them and not treating them as mere black boxes. That is what Wikit offers with its expertise in the field.

If you had to describe the atmosphere at Wikit in three words, which would you choose?

Friendly, motivating and dynamic.

Can you reveal something about yourself that's not in your CV?

I would love to be a yoga teacher.

If you could have one superpower for a day, which would you choose and why?

To be able to turn all skeptics into fervent defenders of feminism, the why seems obvious to me 😉