ELLIS and the Public Discourse on AI
ELLIS has published statements and supported open letters of others related to the public discourse and current developments in modern AI in Europe.
Statements Issued by ELLIS
AI Foundation Models: A Roadmap for Europe
The development and deployment of large-scale machine learning systems such as GPT-4 have ushered in a new era of computational requirements. The recently discovered scaling laws indicate that performance continues to increase as training sets grow, and the best performance can thus only be obtained using large-scale machine learning on vast computational resources.
The expenditure to operate a supercomputer that runs GPT-4 is well above one billion EUR. This financial barrier means that the AI landscape is increasingly dominated by the most affluent players, raising concerns about a concentration of power with a few overseas
companies, and preventing Europe from playing a significant role in the current race for AI supremacy.
Read the full statement which includes a call to establish an intergovernmental multi-centric AI research organization with high-performance computing facilities in Europe.
The global conversation about the societal risks of AI: A statement by the ELLIS Board
Artificial Intelligence is a transversal discipline that can be applied to any field and thus it is profoundly changing all aspects of society. It has a significant potential to generate sustainable economic growth and help us tackle the most pressing challenges of the 21st century, such as climate change, pandemics and inequality.
However, the broad adoption of algorithmic decision-making over the last decade on a wide range of domains - from social media to the labor market - already poses significant societal challenges that need to be understood and addressed.
Read the full statement of the ELLIS Board
ELLIS Open Letter
The ELLIS Open Letter was published on 24 April 2018 by leading European machine learning researchers. In this letter they proposed the foundation of a European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) to help ensure Europe's sovereignty and competitiveness in the field of modern AI.
Read the full letter
Statements supported by ELLIS
ELLIS supported the following open letters to the European Parliament issued by LAION, a non-profit organization aiming to make large-scale machine learning models, datasets and related code available to the general public.
Towards a transparent AI future: The call for less regulatory hurdles on open-source AI in Europe
Open-source AI models offer enhanced security, explainability, and robustness due to their transparency and the vast community oversight. They promote environmental sustainability by minimizing redundant training and fostering re-use, and serve as a catalyst for innovation, especially for small and mid-sized enterprises. To leverage these multifaceted benefits and uphold European sovereignty in AI, it is recommended that the EU Parliament incentivizes open-source releases of AI models.
Read the full letter
A call to protect open-source AI in Europe
LAION, alongside prominent research institutions and developers, has penned an open letter to the European Parliament to express concerns about the draft AI Act's potential impact on open-source research and development (R&D) in artificial intelligence (AI). The letter highlights the importance of open-source R&D for ensuring the safety, security, and competitiveness of AI in Europe and warns against the consequences of stifling such innovation.
Read the full letter