ETH and EPFL establish joint institute for artificial intelligence

ETH and EPFL intensify their collaboration on artificial intelligence. The two universities have founded the Swiss National Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SNAI), ETH Zurich announced in a press release. The SNAI aims to pursue a national perspective for AI-based education, research and innovation. The new institute will also operate the Swiss AI initiative launched by ETH and EPFL in December 2023.

"With the joint launch of SNAI, ETH Zurich and EPFL are making a long-term commitment to strengthening and promoting AI in Switzerland," said Christian Wolfrum, ETH Vice President for Research, in the press release. "We want to create a research environment that can establish Switzerland as a location for inclusive, reliable, transparent and trustworthy AI." SNAI is financed by the ETH Board, the two universities and third-party funds.

SNAI is integrated into the ETH AI Center and the EPFL AI Center. As a result, the new institute has the expertise of over 70 professorships in artificial intelligence, according to the press release. The researchers at the SNAI want to create their models as open source as possible so that SMEs and start-ups can also benefit from them.

"SNAI will address the opportunities and challenges of AI of national importance, which require the collaboration of many researchers in our country," explains Pierre Dillenbourg, EPFL Vice President for Academic Affairs. "The results of this collaboration will strengthen Switzerland's competitiveness in the research and development of AI." ce/hs