Until now, our goal has been to get the ball rolling from the EU. Now that it's moving, the goal is to steer it in the societally-optimal direction. Importantly, we still have uncertainties about what that direction looks like. More collaboration (and funding :D) is necessary.

This is just one way in which I hope CERN for AI could be robustly good - beneficial to humanity under nearly all timelines and scenarios. Other focus areas like research that promotes applications enhancing societal resilience also fit this category.

Europe is at a unique crossroads right now. The Draghi report (ik,ik, bear with me) has become scripture for the commission - and it directly endorses metascience ideas that were previously seen as heretical. Yes, the EU is slow to get there, but once it does - things can happen!

The lower/upper tier framework for CERN for AI, combined with a need to reflect on how to do research differently, leaves us with our proposed research structure:

A blend between ARPA and FRO research models, getting the best of centralisation and decentralisation.

We want CERN for AI to actually produce results. Too often, public research efforts fall to the familiar hurdles of bureaucracy and risk-aversion. At the same time, we also have to balance conflicting desires for decentralisation (EU moment) and security (one secure lab!).

You can read it here :D, or look below for some BTS analysis... cfg.eu/building-cer...

(twitter and bsky 😅)

As a rough estimate, how often would you say this happens?