ETH Zurich launches joint initiative for trustworthy AI

In spring 2024 the new Alps supercomputer goes live at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) of ETH Zurich in Lugano. Boasting the next generation of more than 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), Alps is one of the world’s most powerful computers for applications in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). This new computer gives Swiss scientists access to the sort of computing power only available to the world’s biggest tech companies.

Transparency and Open Source

The initiative aims to develop and train new large language models (LLM). These must be transparent, deliver comprehensible results, and ensure legal, ethical, and scientific criteria are met. “Unlike the large language models that are usually available in the public domain today, the Swiss AI Initiative strongly emphasized transparency and Open Source. Everyone must be able to understand how the models were trained, the sort of data used, and how results are recovered,” stresses Jan Hesthaven, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at EPFL.

To develop such models, the Swiss AI Initiative will use ten million GPU hours on the new Alps computer over the next 12 months, equivalent to the computing power of a single GPU running at full load for over 1,100 years. Switzerland is therefore the first country in the world to operate a research infrastructure on the next-generation NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchip.

Swiss AI Initiative is already up and running

This additional computing capacity will be used to develop new, industry-specific AI-based models for use in different areas such as robotics, medicine, climate sciences, or diagnostics. In addition, the Initiative will also explore fundamental questions in the development and use of LLM models, such as: What form will future interaction between humans and AI take? What is the appropriate ethical framework? How do we manage security and data privacy? What new approaches can be used to scale up models and make them more energy efficient?

AI for industry and public administration

The Swiss AI Initiative has set itself the goal of bringing together science, industry, and politics to collaborate in shaping and driving forward the development and use of artificial intelligence in Switzerland. Existing partnerships with companies, hospitals, and public-sector bodies will be expanded further. Swisscom’s CTO Gerd Niehage commented: “Here at Swisscom we welcome the Swiss AI Initiative, especially as we are convinced this will be an important building block in Switzerland’s digital future. It accelerates the digital transformation and creates new capabilities our country needs to play a dominant role in the area of generative artificial intelligence. For Swisscom, AI solutions like the Swiss AI Initiative are a key element of innovative digital solutions that our customers can trust.”

The software infrastructure, accumulated expertise and base models developed in Switzerland should be transferable as openly and directly as possible to society and industry. To remain competitive, SME’s will also have to rely increasingly on the use of AI in the future. Like public services, they will be able to directly benefit from the open Swiss AI Initiative. On top of that, the Swiss AI Initiative is developing a program for supporting start-ups in the area of artificial intelligence.

Networking researchers all over Switzerland

ETH Zurich and EPFL operate their own AI centers that will work closely together in the future, along with the Swiss Data Science Center, to conduct world-class, interdisciplinary AI research. This initiative aims to pool the specialist knowledge of around a dozen Swiss universities, technical universities, and research institutes. Over the past few months over 75 professors from all over Switzerland have signed up for the initiative. In addition, other international researchers have also been invited to work together on the development of multilingual, cross-border, open-source LLMs. ETH Zurich and EPFL are already members of ELLIS, the European network of AI excellence, which incudes some 40 AI hot spots in Europe. 

Press contact

Markus Gross

• Phone: +41 44 632 41 41
• Email: markus.gross@hk.ethz.ch

ETH Zurich
Switzerland