UZH supports CrimeLab and responsible AI projects

(CONNECT) Two new projects are receiving financial support from UZH's university funding program TRANSFORM. According to its press release, the CrimeLab project will receive CHF 1.5 million in funding over the next four years. The CrimeLab will be a transdisciplinary center for crime research. It is intended to bundle the research that has been carried out for some time at various faculties of UZH, as well as in non-university institutions such as the Zurich Forensic Science Institute, the Zurich prison system and the city and cantonal police.

"However, it was often left to chance whether the various research groups knew about each other and whether they pooled their resources in interdisciplinary projects," law professor Thierry Urwyler is quoted as saying. He is a member of the CrimeLab Board of Directors. Urwyler is convinced that a common platform and a common data pool are needed to create such links. One of the four main research areas deals with new forms of crime, such as criminal law and autonomous mobility or new types of crimes involving artificial intelligence (AI) such as phishing and ransomware attacks.

The Responsible AI project aims to ensure that AI is used responsibly. It will receive CHF 1.7 million from the TRANSFORM funding program. This project also aims to bundle, better network and make visible the expertise available in many university areas. It focuses on transparent, fair and socially responsible AI systems and the associated ethical, legal and social issues.

A professorship is to be created at the Department of Informatics and the Department of Mathematical Modeling and Machine Learning. "In view of the dominance of large tech companies, universities play an important role as independent bodies for critical and responsible AI research," says professor Reinhard Furrer, one of the project leaders. ce/mm