The Danish Pioneer Centre for AI marks its official opening
On 28 March Denmark's new Pioneer Centre for Artificial Intelligence marks its official opening with an event that will focus on how fundamental AI research can contribute to solving some of society's greatest challenges and bring Denmark to the forefront of human-centred artificial intelligence.
The Director of the centre, Professor Serge Belongie, hopes that the centre, with its focus on societal challenges, people and design, will challenge and change the way artificial intelligence creates value for Denmark.
– The unique character of the Pioneer Centre for AI comes through in the way in which we work with the grand challenges. The challenges we will confront are not merely a matter of big data and bigger models; rather, they are high-touch, messy, deeply human problems, for which tech is but one component, situated alongside vital contributions from social science, participatory design, journalism, public policy, and beyond, explains Professor and director in the Pioneer Centre for AI, Serge Belongie.
Since the start of the centre in the autumn of 2021, several research projects have already been launched across the five universities. The projects aim to create social impact in areas such as health and biotech, energy, and infrastructure as well as climate and biodiversity.
Human-centric AI
The centre was initiated by the Ministry of Higher Education and Science in collaboration with the Danish National Research Foundation, the Carlsberg Foundation, the Villum Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Lundbeck Foundation and the five universities.
“There is no doubt that the development of technologies based on artificial intelligence will become important in solving a wide range of societal challenges. In healthcare, we expect the research of the pioneer centre will lead to improved diagnostics and personalized treatment by including complex data. In that process, the broader perspective of the pioneer centre and the development of human-centric AI is vital. Trust and understanding the technologies is key to the deployment of AI in personalized treatment,” says Jan Egebjerg, Senior Vice President, Grants & Prizes at the Lundbeck Foundation.
The pioneer centre has received total grants of more than DKK 350 million.
The Pioneer Centre for AI is the first of 2-3 pioneer centres in Denmark.
The Department of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen functions as host and administrator for the centre, while researchers from the Technical University of Denmark, the IT University of Copenhagen, Aalborg University and Aarhus University act as co-leads.
For now, the centre is located in Østerbro in Copenhagen, but during the autumn of 2022, it is expected that the University of Copenhagen's observatory at Østervold in the centre of Copenhagen will be ready to house the Pioneer Centre for AI.
Read the full official press release
More about the research here:
The Danish Pioneer Centre for AI marks its official opening – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)
