On Wednesday 24 January, the European Commission proposed an amendment to the Regulation on the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) (see EUROPE 12748/19) as part of an initiative to support the emergence of an ecosystem of start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) capable of developing European artificial intelligence (AI) solutions (see other news).
The proposed amendment aims to introduce an additional objective into EuroHPC’s remit.
The Commission wants to create ‘AI Factories’ and is proposing to facilitate access to European supercomputers, located in large data centres or connected to such centres via very high-speed networks, particularly for ethical and responsible artificial intelligence start-ups.
With this in mind, the amendment provides, among other things, for the acquisition and operation of supercomputers dedicated to AI and the constant improvement of the performance of these supercomputers.
The Commission proposes that the EU financial contribution should cover up to 50% of the acquisition costs and up to 50% of the operating costs of these dedicated supercomputers. The remainder of the total cost of ownership of the supercomputers should be covered by the participating State in which the entity hosting them is established or by the States participating in the hosting consortium.
For the Commission, this new objective entrusted to EuroHPC should enable the large-scale development of “reliable and ethical” AI models and systems for general use, and the creation of user communities for the development and exploitation of emerging AI applications.
The amendment should also make it possible to support “talent” capable of offering high-level education, training and assistance in AI.
The Commission also wants these AI Factories to work in synergy with other EU AI initiatives.
To find out more, go to https://aeur.eu/f/ajq (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)