Switzerland to support scientific projects with Alps supercomputer

The European country is once again among the leaders in technology based on artificial intelligence through the Alps supercomputer at the service of science

Switzerland has the new Alps supercomputer, the sixth most powerful in the world, which places it among the technological leaders along with Finland, Japan and the United States.

The European country will make the sixth supercomputer with artificial intelligence (AI) available to the most sophisticated scientific projects.

Alps will be the new support in the field of science through AI, allowing “to map the universe, separate health information from conspiracy theories and develop more precise climate models.”

It is estimated that once finished, the device will reach a computing power 20 times greater than its predecessor, the Piz Daint, “and enough muscle to exploit the capacity of artificial intelligence (AI).”

So far, 1,000 scientists have signed up to the new Alps network. The director of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), Professor Thomas Schulthess, explains the access limitations by arguing that the supercomputer costs 100 million francs (118 million dollars) “and has an annual budget for its operation of 37 million francs.” It is a state-subsidized work, and the subsidies do not scale.

The use of this supercomputer is not mass commercial. “The additional computing power will continue to focus on Swiss and international research projects, in the field of natural sciences, above all.”

However, companies have the option of requesting access to the supercomputer on the condition that they collaborate on their research with a local university and pay the costs of its use.

For its part, the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre must authorize access for a period of three years to so-called spin-offs.

Data security

The CSCS has the obligation to prevent the quality of the data processed by the supercomputers may be compromised by the use of less rigorous filters. “In the natural sciences, we have methods for filtering out erroneous data that have been known since the time of Galileo. We want to help adopt these methods to the humanities, commercial enterprises and society,” said Schulthess.

The Swiss agency is very careful with the quality of data that is introduced into AI systems, because if it is deficient “it could lead to the reproduction of biases and falsehoods with harmful consequences.”

Currently, the Alps supercomputer is used to train the Meditron large language model system, “which processes high-quality medical data. The medical profession uses Meditron to make accurate diagnoses in countries that lack advanced medical infrastructures.”

The application of AI with this device will also make it possible to establish the difference between fiction and reality in terms of information.

M.Pino

Source: swissinfo

(Reference image source: Getty Images for Unsplash+)

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