Centre of Expertise Applied Artificial Intelligence

Amsterdam AI

Amsterdam AI is a collaboration between government, academic, medical and other organisations in Amsterdam to help the city develop and deploy responsible technology in AI. Projects will focus on strengthening the AI ecosystem and work on AI solutions in three domains: business innovation, citizen support, and health. The Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences with the Centre of Expertise Applied AI is part of the coalition.

What is Amsterdam AI?

In December 2019, a group of academic, medical and other organisations in Amsterdam announced the launch of Amsterdam AI (then under the name of AI Technology for People). This initiative is designed to help the city develop and deploy responsible tech in the field of AI, and focuses on serving people working in health, business innovation and citizen support. The initiative encourages collaboration with leading institutions around the world, as well as public partners and members of the business community.

Home to the largest innovation and science ecosystem in the Netherlands, Amsterdam has a long history of public-private partnerships and has been promoting research, education and innovation focused on AI for over three decades. Through Amsterdam AI, local organisations have developed targets designed to advance the field over the next ten years. These include:

  • committing at least €1 billion in financial resources to AI
  • ensuring at least 800 people work in AI education, innovation and research
  • training at least 5,000 students in AI technology at BSc, MSc and PhD levels
  • having at least 10,000 students minoring in AI
  • impacting at least 100 SMEs through collaborative spin-off projects
  • ensuring there are at least 100 AI startups in the city

The organisations involved in the initiative are the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital (which is partnered with the Netherlands Cancer Institute), the Amsterdam Economic Board , Amsterdam UMC , Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica , the City of Amsterdam , Smart Health Amsterdam , the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences , Sanquin , the UvA and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) .

Coalition publishes AI special

Amsterdam AI joined forces for a special AI supplement of the scientific magazine New Scientist (2020). The magazine is full of stories, interviews and examples of AI projects in Amsterdam. The interview with our scientific director Nanda Piersma and former programme manager Katrien de Witte can be found on pages 20-22.

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