Copenhagen is at the forefront of Machine Learning

- Winning the status as ELLIS Unit is an acknowledgment of the top international level of Danish AI research and a unique platform for promoting Danish AI research. ELLIS is not only a network with strong academic ambitions, but it also has participation from the industrial leaders. Entering the network as a unit means that Copenhagen is one of the key centers for European AI development. ELLIS will become the catalyst that will develop AI for the benefit of business sectors, health, public administration, and education, says the head of the new Unit professor Ole Winther from DTU Compute and University of Copenhagen.

The European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) is a European network in AI, and it consists of Europe's strongest university research environments in AI and is supported by large companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Porsche.

The goal of ELLIS is nothing less than to become the leading open scientific AI organization in the world by tying together the strongest research environments in AI in Europe in a network where they can both help each other by achieving critical mass and be the beacon of others. Therefore, to be admitted as a unit, stringent requirements are set for the level of the applicant organizations.

A boost to Europe

In this way, ELLIS will deal with the situation where many of the best AI labs, as well as many of the best places to embark on a research career in AI, are currently located in the United States. And where massive AI investments in China and the US can amplify a trend that Europe is lagging behind in the AI ​​field. A trend with worrying consequences for European development.

- Machine learning is the heart of a technological and societal revolution involving many other technologies, and if Europe is not ahead, it could have major consequences for competitiveness, health, and safety, says professor Ole Winther.

- We are very happy that this new initiative can contribute to gathering leading machine learning institutions in Europe, and I look forward to strengthening the collaboration in AI in all of Europe, underlines professor Christian Igel from Department of Computer Science at University of Copenhagen (DIKU).

- The establishment of an ELLIS Unit in Copenhagen is an exciting opportunity for us. Machine learning is in the process of revolutionizing many different fields and ELLIS will help us to further develop a strong AI ecosystem in Europe. I'm looking forward to working with leading researchers in our ELLIS unit, together with researchers from the industry, to increase the economic impact of machine learning technologies, concludes associate professor Sebastian Risi from IT University of Copenhagen (ITU).

The future is diverse

In addition to outstanding academic quality, diversity is a key focus of ELLIS. All entities are committed to initiating initiatives to ensure that the artificial intelligence of the future is created by researchers with expertise that reflect the intended users of the research's gender, age, national affiliation, etc.