Yesterday, ICAI, the national Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence, was launched. ICAI is a national initiative focused on joint technology development between academia and industry in the area of artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key technology that is rapidly becoming a disruptor for all economic sectors. Given the impact, AI also generates many societal challenges. It is a proven attractor of investments in countries around the globe and potentially in the Netherlands. And it is likely to be a major change maker for work, today and tomorrow.
The Netherlands needs to better help drive innovation through AI, most importantly by increasing its ability to attract, train and retain top artificial intelligence scientists, connecting them to the business world. Without Dutch business and Dutch data, Dutch AI knowledge cannot be developed. Vice versa, without Dutch AI knowledge, Dutch business faces a serious competitive disadvantage.
The Netherlands has all the required assets to occupy a prominent place in the international AI arena. We have talent, we have world-class research, we have a longstanding tradition in AI education at all levels, and we are one of the world’s top ranked countries in terms of innovation power. ICAI brings these positive forces together in a unique national initiative. Focused on AI innovation through public-private collaborations, ICAI is an open national consortium of academic partners that is based at Amsterdam Science Park and launched by the University of Amsterdam and the VU University Amsterdam.
ICAI’s innovation strategy is organized around industry labs, these are multi-year strategic collaborations between academic and industrial partners with a focus on technology and talent development. Our mantra is that it takes AI innovation talent to make data actionable. By establishing a research lab under the ICAI umbrella, participating companies invest in AI research and innovation, custom made AI training programs, and an ambitious talent pipeline that builds on educational strengths in AI.
ICAI builds on the success of a long-standing tradition of public-private cooperation in research. For companies it is important to absorb knowledge and know-how of AI as it is close to the essential values of business processes and the future perspective of the company. Internationally, this need to cooperate between public and private partners has been recognized and put into action for the Netherlands to follow.
Visit http://icai.ai or contact me for more information.