INESC-ID takes part in the world’s largest consortium on Responsible AI
INESC-ID has been announced as one of the members of the world’s largest consortium on Responsible Artificial Intelligence (Responsible AI).
Led by Unbabel — and including a set of ten other startups, eight research institutes (in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, amongst them INESC-ID, Instituto Superior Técnico, the Champalimaud Foundation and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto), a law firm and five industry leaders across the life sciences, tourism and retail — the Centre for Responsible AI will invest 78 million euros from the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan (Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência, PRR) with the goal of positioning Portugal as a world leader in Responsible AI technologies and regulation.
INESC-ID will participate in the Centre for Responsible AI via eleven of its researchers (some of whom will also integrate the Scientific and Executive Boards of the consortium): Isabel Trancoso, Ana Paiva, Bruno Martins, Helena Moniz, João Paulo Carvalho, Francisco Melo, Paolo Romano, Luísa Coheur, David Matos, Ana Teresa Freitas and Arlindo Oliveira.
With a predicted impact on the Portuguese economy rounding 250 million euros, the Centre for Responsible AI is set to create 210 highly qualified jobs and result in over 130 advanced academic degrees.
As part of its ambitious plan, this consortium will develop twenty-one innovative AI products, leveraging Responsible AI technologies to reduce biases and the potentially negative impact of these applications, fostering their equitable and sustainable use. Exemplifying the groundbreaking reach of the Centre for Responsible AI, one of these products will allow the automatic translation of clinical data, resolving and bypassing current challenges that should, for instance, contribute to the acceleration of clinical trials and the rapid transition of clinically important consumables to the market.
On this world-first Centre for Responsible AI, Paulo Dimas, Vice-President of Innovation at Unbabel, commented that “we are creating what is the biggest Responsible AI consortium in the world. In it, we will develop a virtuous circle between startups and advanced research centers, creating next-generation AI products while positioning Portugal at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence. It was for us an enormous privilege to be able to lead this consortium where some of the brightest minds in Portugal are gathered to invent the future of Artificial Intelligence.”
Upcoming Events
Educational Workshop on Responsible AI for Peace and Security (UNODA)
On June 6 and 7, The United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) are offering a selected group of technical students the opportunity to join a 2-day educational workshop on Responsible AI for peace and security.
The third workshop in the series will be held in Porto Salvo, Portugal, in collaboration with GAIPS, INESC-ID, and Instituto Superior Técnico. The workshop is open to students affiliated with universities in Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa, Oceania, and Asia.
Date & Time: June 6 a 7
Where: IST – Tagus Park, Porto Salvo
Registration deadline: April 8
Summary: “As with the impacts of Artificial intelligence (AI) on people’s day-to-day lives, the impacts for international peace and security include wide-ranging and significant opportunities and challenges. AI can help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but its dual-use nature means that peaceful applications can also be misused for harmful purposes such as political disinformation, cyberattacks, terrorism, or military operations. Meanwhile, those researching and developing AI in the civilian sector remain too often unaware of the risks that the misuse of civilian AI technology may pose to international peace and security and unsure about the role they can play in addressing them. Against this background, UNODA and SIPRI launched, in 2023, a three-year educational initiative on Promoting Responsible Innovation in AI for Peace and Security. The initiative, which is supported by the Council of the European Union, aims to support greater engagement of the civilian AI community in mitigating the unintended consequences of civilian AI research and innovation for peace and security. As part of that initiative, SIPRI and UNODA are organising a series of capacity building workshops for STEM students (at PhD and Master levels). These workshops aim to provide the opportunity for up-and-coming AI practitioners to work together and with experts to learn about a) how peaceful AI research and innovation may generate risks for international peace and security; b) how they could help prevent or mitigate those risks through responsible research and innovation; c) how they could support the promotion of responsible AI for peace and security.”