Artificial intelligence, Turin

It is not yet a structured ecosystem, but the Artificial Intelligence theme promises to gain visibility and a growing role in Turin and Piedmont. This was also mentioned by the newly elected president of the region, Alberto Cirio, as a contact person at the European Committee of the Regions, with the task of representing the vision of local administrations on Artificial Intelligence and drafting an opinion.

At the forefront of this emerging ecosystem is the AI4Industry Foundation assigned by the government to Turin just over three months ago and chaired by Fabio Pammolli, with a budget of 20 million. It will deal with research and development, with a focus on industry and the aim of attracting researchers. In the field are the University of Turin, with the Department of Informatics and the Working Group on Parallel Computing directed by Mario Aldinucci, and the Polytechnic University of Turin, with the Hub on Artificial Intelligence directed by Barbara Caputo, alongside the Boella Institute and the Cottino Foundation, which studies social impact. An ecosystem that looks to the North-West thanks to Leonardo: the digital infrastructure of the 'davinci-1' supercomputer supports the work of Turin's PC2Lab, which deals with virtual prototyping. Within the virtual hub, thanks to the use of supercomputing, cloud-computing and AI, the virtual tactical scenario is created in which the aircraft - the digital twin - to be tested is inserted. In the PC2LAB environment, the enabling technologies for the Global Combat Air Programme, a collaborative programme between Italy, the UK and Japan, are also being developed. It will operate in the five domains (air, land, sea, space and cyber), according to a star structure in which the next-generation fighter will be the core platform, linked to unmanned, Ai-controlled gregarious aircraft.

The challenge in the coming months will be to bring together the competences of the area, which today are travelling on parallel paths. Teaming up is therefore a must, also in relation to the European policy to support the supercomputer network launched in 2018. The next step is the AI Factories project, a EuroHPC JU programme that aims to finance two to three AI factories in different EU countries. Italy should apply to host one of the centres around the Bologna technopole. The AI4Industry Foundation, together with the ICSC - the National Research Centre in High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing, one of the five National Centres set up by the NRP and dedicated to strategic sectors for the country's development, of which the University of Turin is a member, and the FAIR Foundation (Future Artificial Intelligence Research), to which the Turin Poles of Technology belongs, should also be involved. AI Factory aims to build a supply chain in the field of AI and the Turin hub is to be part of it.

The foundation led by Pammolli is taking its first steps, has started the selection of the director - the call for applications will remain open until 30 September - who will have to present a business plan and give consistency to the organisation. 'By the autumn we will have the director and by next year the various research nuclei will be in place,' Pammolli explains. 'In the meantime we have defined a function dedicated to processes and strategy and an initial business development nucleus. The Foundation will have an advanced centre for storace and high performance computing and will join the Italian supercomputer network, together with Leonardo and Cineca in Bologna.