EU reveals sites for major AI factories across Europe

Date:
Tue, 17 Dec 2024 13:00:10 +0000

Description:
European Commission confirms seven locations for its next-generation AI Factories, more applications welcome.

FULL STORY

The European Union has announced 750 million in investment to establish AI supercomputers across seven sites on the continent.

The initiative forms part of a broader 1.5 billion joint project, with the other half of the funding set to come from EU member states, as part of an effort to take on US tech giants and become what EVP for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, envisions as an AI continent.

As part of the announcement, we now know the seven chosen locations for AI supercomputers in Europe - Barcelona, Spain; Bologna, Italy; Kajaani,
Finland; Bissen, Luxembourg; Linkping, Sweden; Stuttgart, Germany and Athens, Greece.

Seven EU AI supercomputers confirmed

The supercomputers in Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and Sweden will be deployed as brand-new world-class AI-optimised supercomputers, with the
Spanish and Greek sites getting upgrades to raise their status.

By deploying the seven new supercomputers, the Commission hopes to more than double its EuroHPC computing capacity, with rollout scheduled for 2025-2026.

Today we are one step closer to setting up AI Factories. Using European supercomputers, we will enable AI start-ups to innovate and scale up," Virkkunen added.

Now we are ready to lead with the right infrastructure in our ambition for
the EU to become the AI continent. We are on track to make the AI factories initiative a reality in the first 100 days of the new European Commission.

The AI Factories are part of a broader strategy in the European Union to encourage AI development and deployment across sectors where it can really
make a difference, like healthcare, finance and manufacturing. Other member states have also been invited to submit proposals by February 2025.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/eu-reveals-sites-for-major-ai-factories-across-e urope

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The European Union has announced 750 million in investment to establish
AI supercomputers across seven sites on the continent.

There are a lot of things that I don't understand about that.

What kind of AI are they talking about?

(Deadly killing-machine-soldier-robots?)

Why does it cost money to develop AI? The guy who made the BBS door game
called "AI" (for example) just needed an old 90s computer and a copy of
Borland Turbo C++. And nobody paid him a penny.

Is AI just a joke that elites are using to extort money from taxpayers?

Kinda like "global warming?"

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Aaron Thomas wrote to Mike Powell <=-

Why does it cost money to develop AI? The guy who made the BBS door
game called "AI" (for example) just needed an old 90s computer and a
copy of Borland Turbo C++. And nobody paid him a penny.

The Eliza program ran on a 16K TRS-80 Model I. And I think it was public domain by that point.

Is AI just a joke that elites are using to extort money from taxpayers?

Kinda like "global warming?"

Probably. They are good at creating a "crisis" that results in them getting more money/power.


... I'd love to, but my bathroom tiles need grouting.
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The European Union has announced 750 million in investment to establish AI supercomputers across seven sites on the continent.

There are a lot of things that I don't understand about that.

Why does it cost money to develop AI? The guy who made the BBS door game called "AI" (for example) just needed an old 90s computer and a copy of Borland Turbo C++. And nobody paid him a penny.

Is AI just a joke that elites are using to extort money from taxpayers?

Several companies are looking into AI as a way to augment (or replace) human jobs. Reading the article, it sounds like the EU is worried about falling behind in technology (it mentions taking on US tech "giants" -- I would
guess companies like Microsoft, Google, etc.), and also wants a way to augment/automate jobs in their healthcare and financial sectors.

I worry that, over time, decision makers will become too reliant on AI and
it won't question enough the decisions it makes. Two or three years back, Louisville hired a company to change their school bus routes to make fewer
of them. That company used AI modeling. The end result looked good on
paper but didn't take into account that school buses carry a lot of little humans (with minds of their own), and also apparently didn't take into
account enough the city's traffic patterns.

The end result was a disaster. After one day of school, they had to close school for a week while human decision makers figured out how to fix the
mess.


* SLMR 2.1a * One good turn gets all the blankets.
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Is AI just a joke that elites are using to extort money from taxpayer

Kinda like "global warming?"

Probably. They are good at creating a "crisis" that results in them getting more money/power.

"AI" has recently turned into a gigantic blanket term. It used to refer to stuff like "Eliza" but now it also covers "anything that is automated." For example, they said on the radio "AI will now be giving tickets to motorists." They really mean "An automated computer process will be giving tickets to
motorists."

Some clever elitist probably owns the phrase "AI" and he/she probably gets paid a nickel for every time someone says "AI."

You're not sitting in fron of a computer. You're now sitting in front of "AI." :)

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Is AI just a joke that elites are using to extort money from taxpayers?

Several companies are looking into AI as a way to augment (or replace) human jobs. Reading the article, it sounds like the EU is worried about

Isn't that always the way it's been? When the conveyor belt was invented, didn't it reduce the number of workers needed in factories, and/or improve productivity?

I worry that, over time, decision makers will become too reliant on AI
and it won't question enough the decisions it makes. Two or three years back, Louisville hired a company to change their school bus routes to
make fewer of them. That company used AI modeling. The end result
looked good on paper but didn't take into account that school buses
carry a lot of little humans (with minds of their own), and also apparently didn't take into account enough the city's traffic patterns.

I've heard news reports mention "fully autonomous vehicles" being driven. That's what I'd call "too reliant." How likely is it that such a vehicle would pull over and provide insurance information in the event of a collision?

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I've heard news reports mention "fully autonomous vehicles" being driven. That's what I'd call "too reliant." How likely is it that such a vehicle would pull over and provide insurance information in the event of a collision?

There is video out there somewhere of one of those recently getting stuck in a "loop" in a roundabout.

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"AI" has recently turned into a gigantic blanket term. It used to refer to stuff like "Eliza" but now it also covers "anything that is automated." For example, they said on the radio "AI will now be giving tickets to motorists." They really mean "An automated computer process will be giving tickets to motorists."

Automated, repetitious processes are one thing. AI is supposed to include a decision making element. Like the driverless cars you mentioned. They must be able to decide whether or not to stop at a red light, or before hitting a jaywalker. A simple automated process would just run the pedestrian over, while AI automation should stop until the unexpected obstacle has cleared its path.

Some clever elitist probably owns the phrase "AI" and he/she probably gets paid a nickel for every time someone says "AI."

You're not sitting in fron of a computer. You're now sitting in front of "AI." :)

There is a difference here, too. Some people will have tasks that are semi-automated via AI... like allowing AI to generate code that they then (should) check and make changes to before using. Working in front of a computer alone won't mean you are "working with AI." OTOH, may "thought leaders" like Elon Musk believe that if you have an IT job you should be interacting with AI a lot more often, and allowing it to make certain decisions for you.

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