Season’s greetings 2022 from FCAI

The artificial intelligence and machine learning landscape is thriving, and after nearly three years of the pandemic, we are looking to the new year with big plans. Our field has a growing role to play, not just in contributing excellent science, but in boosting the economy, attracting talent to Europe and Finland and fostering trust and centering people in the development of new and disruptive technology. Generative art, deepfakes and sentience of large language models are in the news daily—our work is consequential and valuable as a counterweight, but we can do more to advocate and be more visible.

Our ambition is to make Finland a key player in the European and global AI field. We are planning for an ELLIS Institute, a long-term powerhouse for research and innovation in intelligent systems. FCAI currently hosts the smaller-scale ELLIS Unit Helsinki, a node of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), a network of AI excellence, focusing on fundamental science, technical innovation, and societal impact.

We encourage all qualified FCAI people to apply to become ELLIS members, which requires demonstrating regular, top-tier publication in machine learning. An alternative, even easier step is to become an ELLIS supporter. We look forward to your support in building a permanent base for the next stage of the AI community in Finland.

Keep reading for some of FCAI’s news highlights this year.

Teams are advancing the FCAI research agenda

Cross-cutting teams of postdocs, PhD researchers and PIs were established this year to boost the collaboration between the Research Programs in developing new AI, and demonstrating its power in Highlight applications. Each FCAI Team contributes one important piece to this big picture through either methods development or Virtual Laboratory applications.

FCAI and The Alan Turing Institute are developing Virtual Laboratories and more in wide-ranging collaboration

Since signing an MoU in 2019, FCAI and the Turing have been ramping up their cooperation. As productive bi-directional research visits and exchanges continue, the Virtual Laboratory concept has also been fleshed out in a recent paper.

For FCAI’s Virtual Laboratory news, research and events, visit: https://fcai.fi/virtual-laboratory

For more on the FCAI-Turing partnership, visit: https://www.turing.ac.uk/partnering-turing/current-partnerships-and-collaborations/finnish-centre-artificial-intelligence 

Industrial collaboration is a win-win

FCAI’s ongoing video series has highlighted how doctoral research supported by companies can be a win-win for both research and industry. Check out the stories from Neste NAPCON, Planmeca, Bitville and Konecranes to see how companies big and small are collaborating with FCAI: https://fcai.fi/news/category/win-win

AI Across Fields, Industry & Society, and AI Day

Events have returned and with them the chance to interact, learn and network. AIX Forums have brought the Academy of Finland flagships, for example 6G and FinnCERES, into closer cooperation with FCAI, while Industry & Society webinars have explored computational design, sustainable energy and AI for the process industry. In-person events have brought critical and necessary perspectives on ethics, diversity and responsibility in AI. The Nordic Probabilistic AI School came to Helsinki this summer. And November’s AI Day saw more than 400 people gather at Aalto University for the year’s biggest showcase of AI research in Finland. We look forward to seeing you in-person or online at FCAI’s upcoming events!

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Best regards and Happy New Year,

Samuel Kaski

Director, FCAI

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