The Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona City Council, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, the Computer Vision Center, Eurecat, Everis, i2CAT, Microsoft and SDG Group have created theCenter of Innovation for Data tech and Artificial Intelligence(CIDAI), a public-private initiative to promote the transfer of technological solutions and the implementation of joint projects between knowledge-generating entities and companies and institutions that are users and demanders of innovative solutions inArtificial Intelligence.
Framed within the strategyCatalonia.AIof the Generalitat of Catalonia and coordinated by the technological centerEureka, theCIDAIaims to generate, validate and transfer reliable Artificial Intelligence technologies with high added value to promote innovation in the country’s strategic sectors, including public services and the third sector, and to identify innovative technological proposals from cutting-edge research in Artificial Intelligence, to disseminate them to companies and institutions.
Another of CIDAI’s goals is to empower the Catalan artificial intelligence ecosystem as an international leader by building a connected, active and vibrant community involving the vast majority of stakeholders. It additionally envisages fast-tracking the uptake of reliable artificial intelligence in business and society with projects that showcase its benefits and dismantle existing barriers.
At the presentation ceremony, thePresident of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, has assured that the Artificial Intelligence Strategy of Catalonia, Catalonia.AI, which the Government approved today, lays the foundations so that “in the same way that we have become a knowledge hub in Europe, we can also consolidate ourselves as a digital hub at a European and global level.”
This digitalization strategy, the president explained, “must be accompanied by mechanisms to include everyone”, because “we must see it as a great social integration project”. “We must take advantage of Artificial Intelligence to increase people’s capabilities, to contribute to increasing individual and collective well-being,” he pointed out.
TheMinister of Digital Policies and Public Administration, Jordi Puigneró,He highlighted that “the CIDAI, established as a network service center, will be a fundamental piece within the Catalonia.AI country strategy to promote the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Catalonia.” In this sense, Puigneró added that “AI is one of the advanced digital technologies that will have the greatest economic and social impact in the coming years, a potential that the Government of Catalonia wants to take advantage of as a great opportunity for the country for the benefit of society and a great step forward in its commitment to making Catalonia a leading digital nation of global reference.”
For its part, theMinister of Business and Knowledge, Àngels Chacón,He assured that this Strategy “positions us among knowledge societies”, because “knowledge and talent are the key elements that will mark the competitiveness of territories in the coming years”. And he added that “we work to facilitate this essential relationship that we must establish between research, the science that it generates, and business.”
“Artificial Intelligence is a disruption that must necessarily incorporate an ethical dimension in order to guarantee that this technology is put at the service of citizens and not the other way around,” stressed theCommissioner for Digital Innovation, Electronic Administration and Good Governance of the Barcelona City Council, Michael Donaldson.
In the words of thepresident of Eurecat, Xavier Torra, the CIDAI “was born with the aim of consolidating a space where advanced demand can learn first-hand about the advantages of Artificial Intelligence applied to many sectors”, so that “the entire community can see and generate new expectations, new business models and new jobs based on this technology in the next three years”.
To bring the opportunities it opens up to the entire economic and productive fabric and to society, CIDAI was born “with a totally inclusive and integrating vocation of all innovation agents and potential users in Catalonia, aimed at promoting the culture of data and Artificial Intelligence and promoting new projects that resolve doubts about the application of this technological field in our society”, thedirector of CIDAI, Marc Torrent,who highlighted that “the initiative reinforces Catalonia’s positioning as one of the main Digital Innovation Hubs in Europe” in new technologies in accordance with the strategy of the Generalitat. From a social perspective, he added, “CIDAI will ensure reliable, integrative and opportunity-boosting Artificial Intelligence, while avoiding bias and emphasizing respect for privacy.”
Thedeputy director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center-National Supercomputing Center (BSC), Josep Maria Martorell,He highlighted the center’s contribution as a computing and data infrastructure adapted to the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence. Martorell assured that “the future MareNostrum 5 will be a great opportunity for the industrial fabric and will be available for this project and all those public-private collaborations that can be established in the field of Artificial Intelligence.”
In the words of thedirector of the Computer Vision Center (CVC), Josep Lladós Canet, “Artificial Intelligence has a direct impact on society and it is necessary to be able to bring together the main agents who actively work in this field with a search for excellence. In Catalonia, Computer Vision, one of the AI subareas with the most impact and critical mass in both the scientific and innovation fields, has an ecosystem of more than 1,100 professionals and had a business volume of 160 million euros in 2019 alone. “CIDAI will be of great help in promoting and raising the visibility of this community that works at the highest level worldwide.”
According to theExecutive Director of Data & Analytics of Everis, Adolf Hernández, “the creation of CIDAI confirms Catalonia’s strategic commitment to Artificial Intelligence as a driving force for the transformation of digital society. The presence of Everis as a Core Partner in this initiative reinforces our commitment and that of the entire NTT group to creating the society of the future through innovation and the ethical use of technology, and specifically for Barcelona and Catalonia as the headquarters of our Global Center of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence.”
According to thedirector of the i2CAT Foundation, Josep Paradells,“CIDAI is one of the backbone initiatives of the Catalonia.AI strategy with the vision of becoming a benchmark for companies in technological demand, a space where they can receive training, advice and demonstration of how Artificial Intelligence can be applied to solve their needs and generate new business models.”
For thedirector of Institutional Relations of Microsoft Ibérica, Montserrat Pardo,“The potential of AI as an enabler of digital transformation is undeniable, as is the unprecedented opportunity it represents to improve the competitiveness of the business environment and the economy. At Microsoft we are committed to a necessary public-private collaboration to maintain and continue developing projects related to innovation and the use of technology such as AI, increasing its penetration between the public sector and companies. By making Artificial Intelligence enhance human intelligence, solutions can be found to the main challenges facing humanity. The key to leading the future is technological intensity, investing in those technologies that differentiate and enhance the competitive capacity of each company in any sector. With our participation in CIDAI we are contributing to promoting this innovation to carry out a true transformation in our economy and society.”
“We are all aware of the importance and impact of digitalization on our lives. In fact, we frequently talk about the need to change our production and service models to improve the competitiveness of our economy and the well-being of people, although we often have difficulty specifying what to do. For us at SDG Group, CIDAI is an opportunity to contribute to society in this project of improvement and adaptation to digital change. We understand that the organizations that we are in this world have a responsibility and a commitment to helping the institutions and companies of our society maintain a global positioning in a world increasingly driven by data and Artificial Intelligence, and that CIDAI is a platform where together we can contribute”, he pointed outAugust Mabilon, partner of SDG Group.
The Digital Innovation Hubs model established by the European Commission
The CIDAI is inspired by theDigital Innovation Hubs Competence Centers modelestablished by the European Commission and will be configured as a network center at the service of companies and institutions. In this sense, the axes that underpin it are utility and impact, based on constant dialogue with companies and organizations in the environment to prioritize and promote the most relevant initiatives and technologies.
Other values of CIDAI are excellence, neutrality and ethical principles, with the development of activities and projects led by experts in the field, with continuous technological surveillance and the application of good practices at a European level and proximity, with the idea of inspiring, demonstrating and making the state of the art more accessible to companies and institutions by coordinating agents from across the territory.
This initiative will be integrated as a competence center with the IHL strategy of Catalonia in coordination with the ProACCIÓ 4.0 program led by ACCIÓ and where all initiatives are coordinated to help the technological transformation of Catalan companies.