International Computation and AI Network: kick off at the WEF in Davos
Here's how the world's most powerful supercomputers, based in Switzerland and beyond, support the UN SDGs and global sustainability
At the World Economic Forum 2024 in Davos, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation and the Zurich Polytechnic made official the birth of the International Computation and AI Network (ICAIN) in collaboration with their international partners.
The mission of the new entity is to develop artificial intelligence technologies that bring benefits to society as a whole, are accessible to all as well as sustainable, thus contributing to reducing global inequalities.
AI is one of the most critical technologies of our time, as the moderator underlined Cathy Lee, Head of AI, Data and Metavese at the WEF since 2018.
It is set to radically transform our society, economy and politics, as well as having the potential to combat global challenges such as climate change, pandemics and income inequality.
Many countries are therefore looking to expand their AI capabilities and invest in the necessary infrastructure.
However, several potential players, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, do not have access to relevant technologies due to high costs and shortages of key components.
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Alexandre Phasel: “ICAIN takes a bottom-up approach for the broader community”
The founders of the International Computation and AI Network want to open access to supercomputing infrastructure, data and software, as well as artificial intelligence know-how, to a wider community.
The aim is to facilitate international research projects that benefit society as a whole and promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of United Nations.
“The capabilities to develop generative AI models are currently mostly in the hands of private companies”, he claims Alexandre Phasel, State Secretary of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).
“This creates the risk that solutions will primarily be developed that can be monetized quickly and are not accessible to actors in low-income countries.”
Furthermore, these capabilities are concentrated in a few regions of the world, so the cultural or linguistic characteristics of disadvantaged groups are mostly ignored in training AI models.
ICAIN therefore takes a bottom-up approach, where researchers submit project applications and only use resources they cannot access.
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Partnering with Data Science Africa to network data scientists across the continent
An example of the implementation of an initial pilot project is the collaboration between ICAIN and Data Science Africa (DSA).
This pan-African organization networks data scientists across the continent, offers training programs, and supports nonprofit research projects in machine learning and data science.
One of the objectives of the first joint project is to use artificial intelligence to make agriculture more resistant to the negative effects of climate change.
The results of the projects supported by ICAIN will be made public and must be transparent both with regards to the artificial intelligence models and the training data.
“For us, the collaboration with ICAIN is interesting because it opens up new opportunities for our members in the implementation of AI projects in the African context. We also want to share the unique expertise of DSA members for the benefit of other members of the network.", says Professor Ciira Maina, Chair of the Board of Directors of Data Science Africa.
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The first projects will begin in 2024, while the creation of ICAIN will be completed by 2025
The founding members of ICAIN, in addition to the FDFA and the ETH Zurich, also include the Swiss National Computing Center (CSCS), the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), the Data Science Africa and the Finnish Computing for Science (CSC), which is the host member of the LUMI (Large Unified Modern Infrastructure) consortium, which includes Switzerland, Finland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Sweden.
In fact, he also participated in the press conference Bernhard Schoelkopf, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and of the ELLIS Institute in Tübingen and also a professor at the ETH.
“I am pleased that we have managed to put ICAIN on a broad international basis right from the start, which can also make available two of the most modern and powerful supercomputers with our Alpine infrastructure and the European LUMI, as well as the necessary expertise ”, he claims Christian Wolfrum, Vice President for Research at ETH Zurich.
“Of course we also hope to convince other partners of the importance of ICAIN's mission and encourage them to actively support us.”
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Financial as well as in-kind contributions are accepted from anyone who wishes to participate
Potential candidates could include, for example, research institutes, international organisations, companies or foundations willing to support ICAIN financially with in-kind contributions (such as computing power) or specialist expertise.
During the incubation phase of the current year, ICAIN governance rules and coordination processes will be drawn up and funding will be secured.
Furthermore, the first pilot projects will be launched (for example, in collaboration with DSA) with the aim of gathering experiences in collaboration with the project partners.
ICAIN's organizational structures are expected to be ready by 2025.
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