Safety assurance and engineering for multimodal foundation model-enabled AI systems

Developing benchmarks, testing and evaluation frameworks to improve the safety of foundation models in the real world.

| April 11, 2026
Abstract background with geometric shapes

Multi-modal foundation models are increasingly being deployed in the real world in a range of domains. Yet despite their importance, existing safety assurance approaches are not adequate for the complexity of multi-modal models. Canada CIFAR AI Chairs Foutse Khomh and Lei Ma along with University of Alberta Professor Randy Goebel are developing end-to-end safety assurance techniques for multi-modal foundation models in several key areas of application: robotics, software coding and autonomous driving. They will develop benchmarks, testing and evaluation frameworks with the potential to improve the safety of foundation models in the real world.

Collaborators

  • Randy Goebel

    Canada CIFAR AI Chairs, Amii; University of Alberta

  • Foutse Khomh

    Canada CIFAR AI Chair, Mila; Polytechnique Montréal

  • Lei Ma

    Canada CIFAR AI Chairs, Amii; University of Alberta