What's new in AI in Amsterdam, October 2021
As the World Summit AI takes place in Amsterdam this week, we round up the latest developments in AI technology in Amsterdam, from fraud detection to crop optimisation.
Amsterdam hosts World Summit AI
The brightest minds in Artificial Intelligence are gathering in Amsterdam this week for the fifth edition of this internationally renowned event focused on global AI challenges and innovations. Exhibitors include 14 Amsterdam startups using AI in areas including healthcare, smart energy, air quality and space management solutions.
University of Amsterdam-led team wins funding for developing trustworthy AI systems
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded €25m to the UvA team’s proposal to add 17 labs to the existing 30 at the Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI), which will develop AI algorithms excelling in accuracy, reliability, repeatability, resilience and safety – all essential hallmarks of trustworthy AI.
Called the ROBUST programme, the aim is to attract talent to work on these challenges and make trustworthy AI research and innovation a shared responsibility between universities and research centres, industry, and government organisations.
A new AI community launches
ai.nl believes all companies will need to become data and AI-driven to stay relevant in the future economy. It will aid this transition by connecting innovators with those looking for inspiration into how AI can power their business. Along with podcasts, articles and events, the platform will serve as a space for knowledge sharing and a job board. Founded by Remy Geiling, ai.nl will also soon provide a seed fund for early stage startups looking at machine learning or deep learning.
Amsterdam Business School investigates use of AI to detect accounting fraud
It could soon be possible to detect accounting fraud from the published financial statements of companies using machine learning.
Indranil Bhattacharya, a PhD student at Amsterdam Business School, is developing a machine-learning model that can spot whether managers wilfully try to mislead their shareholders by . If successful, Bhattacharya said a fine-tuned AI model “should perform better than alternative existing benchmark models”, and could potentially prevent fraud that causes major damage to financial markets. Through UvA, he has access to the LISA supercomputer, providing the computational power he needs.
Plant scientists to develop AI-powered resilient crops
Plant scientists at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), and counterparts at Dutch universities, have been given the green light by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), and a budget of €50million, to develop agricultural crops resilient to heat, drought, pests and diseases - without the need for pesticides.
With data and AI technology, plant and data scientists and breeding companies will learn to understand which genes and processes make plants resilient to extreme weather and pests. Read more about Amsterdam’s environmentally focused AI innovations.
Amsterdam's AI ecosystem
Considered one of the most AI-ready cities in the world, backed by a thriving ecosystem of AI-focused companies, startups and research labs, Amsterdam is an effective living lab for AI solutions. Public-private initiatives such as AI Technology for People encourage a human-centred approach, so that innovations are responsibly and truly benefit society.