Outreach and service for the community:
In 2018, together with Morten Irgens (Oslo Metropolitan University) and Philipp Slusallek (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence),
I have established CLAIRE, an initiative by the European AI community that seeks to strengthen European excellence in research and innovation
across all areas of AI, for all of Europe, with a human-centred focus.
CLAIRE has attracted major media coverage and garnered broad support by close to 2000 AI experts, more than 100 fellows of
various scientific AI associations, many editors of scientific AI journals, national AI societies, top AI institutes and
key stakeholders in industry and other organisations, as well as by the governments of nine EU member states,
the AAAI, ESA and recently, the European Commission (for details, see claire- ai.org).
Since February 2020, I am chair of the executive board of the CLAIRE association,
an international non-profit association under Belgian Law that comprises the world's largest AI research network.
Since June 2020, CLAIRE also operates an innovation network that brings together European
companies engaged in AI research and innovation across all sectors of applications.
CLAIRE and its members are contributing in various ways to the European AI strategy, including
leadership roles in the recently established ICT-48 Networks of Centres of Excellence in AI
and in Adra,
a new public-private partnership on AI, Data and Robotics Association
that works closely with the European Commission, as well as direct consultation with the European Commission
and national governments.
Together with AIhub, an international non-profit association dedicated to the dissemination
of high-quality information on AI, CLAIRE works towards raising awareness of AI for Good,
i.e., AI for the benefit of humanity (e.g., through work towards meeting the UN sustainable development goals)
and AI for All, i.e., uses and applications of AI that bring benefits to all stakeholders in society rather
than profits to a select few. Since 2020, I serve as a trustee of AIhub.
On behalf of CLAIRE, I frequently give presentations on AI research, innovation and applications,
as well as on various aspects of the European AI strategy to political decision makers
at the EU, national, regional and municipal levels, to government agencies and organisations,
non-governmental organisations, and within the AI research and innovation community.
Aside from my role in CLAIRE, I currently advise
the European Commission (as a senior expert for the international outreach on human-centric AI),
the German government (as member of the international advisory board for the German excellence centres in AI),
the Flemish government (as member of the international advisory board of the Flemish AI Research Programme)
and Sorbonne University (as member of their international advisory board for their AI centre).
