ISR | Lisboa integrates largest globally responsible AI consortia

Last Friday, January 20^th, ten AI start-ups (including two unicorns), eight research centers, one Law firm, and Portuguese leaders in Fintech, Health, Tourism, Pharma, and Retail, got together at Unbabel to kick off the creation of the Centre for Responsible Artificial Intelligence

ISR | Lisboa integrates this “Centre for Responsible AI “ which is one of the largest globally responsible artificial intelligence (AI) consortia, together with other Instituto Superior Técnico research units. Researchers Alexandre Bernardino, Catarina Barata, João Sanches, José Santos-Victor, Pedro Lima, Patrícia Figueiredo, Athanasios Vourvopoulos, and Rita Nunes, are all involved in this project, under the leadership of Unbabel aims to mitigate the risks associated with current machine learning technologies.

“Responsible AI goes beyond the idea of building trustworthy models. It goes into sustainability models in terms of energy, economically accessible with simple setups…It is an umbrella term for a series of reflexive practices and accessibility concerns.” Explained Catarina Barata.

From the academic perspective, the goal is to advance knowledge but with a basis on human knowledge and in an explainable way. An effort to have things possible to be understood by professionals in different areas and other citizens is relevant, for instance when using models in medicine or interaction-oriented robotics.

For Catarina, this is a very relevant consortium, because it involves research institutes, companies, and that bridge between academy and industry, which allows for deeper collaborations. “It’s a great complement to have the industry point of view included in the academic world and vice-versa and it has a lot of potential.”

Published January, 2023