ZHAW Centre for Artificial Intelligence involved in Swiss version of ChatGPT
The Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CAI) at the ZHAW School of Engineering has joined forces with researchers from other AI labs and companies to found the AI start-up AlpineAI, which is launching a Swiss version of ChatGPT. Under the name SwissGPT, the alliance of universities, universities of applied sciences and private industry aims to strengthen the local research and business location. The collaboration on AlpineAI is the first spin-off of the CAI.
Currently, most Large Language Models (LLM) are developed in the USA, with a market share of over 80 per cent. SwissGPT is intended to pave the way for a completely Swiss offering based on LLM that meets the highest international standards and, in addition to ethical and legal standards, also covers the specific needs of multilingual European companies.
In a first phase, AlpineAI will provide interested companies with secure access to the most widely used LLM (such as ChatGPT from OpenAI), offering anonymisation of requests with increased privacy. Hosted in Switzerland, the core product SwissGPT is designed to access sensitive, internal company data. The highest standards of traceability, data transparency and security are met.
The founders and leading minds behind AlpineAI are Prof. Dr Thilo Stadelmann (founder and head of the ZHAW Centre for Artificial Intelligence), Prof. Dr Benjamin Grewe (head of the Neural Learning and Intelligent Systems Group at the University of Zurich and researcher at the ETH AI Center), Pascal Kaufmann (president of the Mindfire Group, neuroscientist and tech pioneer), Dr Marcel Blattner (Co-President LEC Swiss Digital Initiative and Machine Learning expert), Dr Daniela Suter (CEO Gen Suisse) and Martin Wyss (founder of several successful companies in the technology sector). In addition, other CAI researchers are involved in an advisory capacity and in development.