INESC-ID has been announced as one of the members of the world’s largest consortium on Responsible Artificial Intelligence (Responsible AI).

Led by Unbabel — and including a set of ten other startups, eight research institutes (in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, amongst them INESC-ID, Instituto Superior Técnico, the Champalimaud Foundation and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto), a law firm and five industry leaders across the life sciences, tourism and retail — the Centre for Responsible AI will invest 78 million euros from the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan (Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência, PRR) with the goal of positioning Portugal as a world leader in Responsible AI technologies and regulation.

INESC-ID will participate in the Centre for Responsible AI via eleven of its researchers (some of whom will also integrate the Scientific and Executive Boards of the consortium): Isabel Trancoso, Ana Paiva, Bruno Martins, Helena Moniz, João Paulo Carvalho, Francisco Melo, Paolo Romano, Luísa Coheur, David Matos, Ana Teresa Freitas and Arlindo Oliveira.

With a predicted impact on the Portuguese economy rounding 250 million euros, the Centre for Responsible AI is set to create 210 highly qualified jobs and result in over 130 advanced academic degrees.

As part of its ambitious plan, this consortium will develop twenty-one innovative AI products, leveraging Responsible AI technologies to reduce biases and the potentially negative impact of these applications, fostering their equitable and sustainable use. Exemplifying the groundbreaking reach of the Centre for Responsible AI, one of these products will allow the automatic translation of clinical data, resolving and bypassing current challenges that should, for instance, contribute to the acceleration of clinical trials and the rapid transition of clinically important consumables to the market.

On this world-first Centre for Responsible AI, Paulo Dimas, Vice-President of Innovation at Unbabel, commented that “we are creating what is the biggest Responsible AI consortium in the world. In it, we will develop a virtuous circle between startups and advanced research centers, creating next-generation AI products while positioning Portugal at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence. It was for us an enormous privilege to be able to lead this consortium where some of the brightest minds in Portugal are gathered to invent the future of Artificial Intelligence.”