European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) launched with Informatics researchers on board

The European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), first described in an open letter earlier this year, is formally announcing the formation of its professional association that will undertake the organization and building of the intellectual and physical structures of ELLIS.

The comprehensive plan for ELLIS includes the creation of a network to advance breakthroughs in AI, a pan-European PhD program to educate the next generation of AI researchers, and a focal point for industrial engagements to boost economic growth by leveraging AI technologies.

ELLIS will focus on modern AI, which relies heavily on machine learning methods such as deep neural networks that allow computers to learn from data and experience.

Machine learning recently made great progress leading to rapid advances in longstanding challenges such as computer vision, speech recognition and machine translation. It will also be an essential technology for self-driving vehicles and advancements in medicine.

The ELLIS announcement was made at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS), the leading international conference on machine learning.

The presidents of six European science organisations have called for larger budgets for top-quality scientific research across Europe. “Artificial Intelligence is at the cutting edge of basic research, yet it also has the potential of changing the world for the better.

Artificial Intelligence is at the cutting edge of basic research, yet it also has the potential of changing the world for the better. Europe will only be able to shape this development if we invest in outstanding research in this field.

Martin Stratmann

It is essential for British science to build strategic relationships with our leading European colleagues, and with AI being a key pillar of our UK industrial strategy, this is exactly the kind of initiative we welcome.

Sir Venki Ramakrishnan

A number of European companies have already agreed to support this initiative including Audi, AVL, Bayer, Bosch, DeepMind, Greiner, Porsche, Siemens as well as US companies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, NVIDIA, Qualcomm and the Canadian startup Element AI.

ELLIS brings together leaders in modern Artificial Intelligence from across Europe. ELLIS will help to retain and nuture talent, in order to innovate and to generate positive impact in the world.

Professor Chris Williams