The focus of her visit was the newly established JUPITER AI Factory, part of the network of AI factories in the European Union.
“My congratulations to the Jülich Supercomputing Centre as it prepares to host an AI Factory, to be powered by Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, one of the most powerful and energy efficient supercomputers in the world”, said European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen during her visit to Jülich. “This cutting-edge facility, to be inaugurated in just a few months, is more than just a milestone; together with other AI Factories it is the cornerstone of our AI continent strategy to foster German and European AI innovation and create a step-change in EU competitiveness. As I embark on my tour of Europe’s emerging AI factories, starting right here in Jülich, I am inspired by its creativity and transformative potential. The future of Europe as AI Continent is being forged right here, right now.”
The EU is set to become a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI). The measures and strategies for this have been presented by the EU Commission in the Action Plan for the AI Continent in five key areas. As part of this ambition, Europe’s AI and supercomputing infrastructure will be reinforced through a network of AI factories. Thirteen of these are to be built at sites that host some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers – including one in Jülich, North Rhine-Westphalia: the JUPITER AI Factory (JAIF).
JAIF aims to strengthen research and industry in strategically important fields of application for artificial intelligence, such as including healthcare, energy, climate change, education, media, the public sector and finance. A particular focus is on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups in training trustworthy AI models. The JAIF consortium consists of Forschungszentrum Jülich, RWTH Aachen University, the Fraunhofer Institutes for Applied Information Technology (FIT) and for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems (IAIS) and hessian.AI, and is headed by Prof. Thomas Lippert, Director of the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, JSC.
“AI needs speed, and we are proud that JUPITER is being built at lightning speed and will compute at lightning speed. With the JUPITER AI Factory, we are establishing an open innovation ecosystem for AI that combines scientific excellence, economic value creation, and societal benefits,” emphasized Prof. Kobus Kuipers, member of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich.
With JUPITER and the JUPITER AI Factory, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and Europe are also laying the foundation for the necessary further expansion of computing capacities for AI.
Minister for European Affairs and Head of the State Chancellery Nathanael Liminski: “Commissioner Virkkunen’s visit is a great recognition for North Rhine-Westphalia as a research location in general and for Forschungszentrum Jülich in particular. With the JUPITER supercomputer, an internationally outstanding research and transfer environment, a rapidly expandable energy and data infrastructure, and strong corporate partners from industry, the research centre and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia offer the ideal conditions for establishing a European AI factory.”
