Charles University and Brno University of Technology belong to the prestigious network of European laboratories for AI

/Press release/ Two Czech laboratories working in automatic speech and language processing have achieved significant international success. The results of the European programme supporting the creation of artificial intelligence centres were announced in March. The institutions involved in the HumanE-AI-Net project also include the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague and the Faculty of Information Technology (BUT).

The HumanE-AI-Net project brings together leading European research centres, universities and industrial enterprises into a network of centres of excellence that goes beyond the narrow definition of artificial intelligence (hereinafter referred to as AI') and combines leading global AI laboratories with key players in related areas such as human-computer interaction science, cognitive science, social science and complexity science. This is linked to a European strategy that focuses on human-centred artificial intelligence.

"We have been involved in international projects dealing with natural language processing and spoken language since the early 1990s. The mandate of representing this area in HumanE-AI-Net is a success, but also a commitment to continue our top research in this area, while extending it in a multidisciplinary way, as the project assumes," said Jan Hajič from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University. The project is led by the German Artificial Intelligence Research Centre (DFKI) in Saarbrücken, with which Charles University has long-term cooperation in the EU Framework Programmes and the Horizon 2020 Programme. "AI and language technology research will be conducted in HumanE-AI-Net through joint microprojects, which aim to achieve completely new results and new research questions through unconventional experiments, which will at the same time force participants to leave the 'comfort bubble' in which they usually operate with their research. HumanE-AI-Net is also a networking project aimed at preparing major AI projects in the planned Horizon Europe programme," explained Hajič, who is also chairman of the pan-European association META-NET (Multilingual Europe Technology Alliance Network).

Experts from Charles University will cooperate closely with colleagues from Brno; these colleagues are speech recognition experts working at the Faculty of Information Technology of the Brno University of Technology, who are among the world leaders in their field. "Participation in the HumanE-AI-Net project is a reward for our more than 20 years of work in the field of speech information mining, one of the cornerstones of modern AI. We look forward to using 'HumanE-AI-Net' to drive out of our narrowly focused field and connect with people exploring AI on a much wider scale," commented Jan Černocký, the Head of the Speech@FIT research group. "Throughout our existence, we have been trying not only to produce top research results, but also to be valid members of the international research community, whether by participating in international technology evaluations or organising international workshops," Černocký added, remembering the American projects DARPA and IARPA obtained by his group and the fact that the biggest speech' conference, Interspeech, will be held in Brno in 2021 thanks to BUT.

Under the HumanE-AI-Net project, 53 partner organisations will receive a total of nearly 12 million EUR. According to Hajič and Černocký, however, this is not about finance itself, but rather about prestigious European cooperation, which helps to connect key players in the field of AI. In addition to the European Commission, the Czech government is now focussing more closely on AI and plans to establish a European Centre of Excellence in AI as a part of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy. In addition to CU and BUT, the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics of CTU, which is involved in three other projects funded from the same call to support the creation of AI Centers of Excellence, should participate in this initiative.