About CNAI

Background

Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) and oth­er new tech­nolo­gies have great poten­tial for use both with­in and out­side the Fed­er­al Admin­is­tra­tion. The use of AI can help to ensure bet­ter qual­i­ty and pos­si­ble new ser­vices for the Fed­er­al Administration’s customers.

What is the benefit of our AI network?

The cre­ation of a Com­pe­tence Net­work for Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (CNAI) is expect­ed to fos­ter the use of and con­fi­dence in AI and oth­er new tech­nolo­gies with­in and out­side the Fed­er­al Admin­is­tra­tion in a sus­tain­able way. This net­work also makes it pos­si­ble to draw on broad expert knowl­edge and ensures that knowl­edge gained from AI projects can be shared with­in the Fed­er­al Admin­is­tra­tion, that syn­er­gies can be used and redun­dan­cies avoid­ed. The con­crete busi­ness case for a pos­si­ble AI-based solu­tion will always come from the admin­is­tra­tive units concerned.

In con­trast to a com­pe­tence cen­ter like the FSO’s DSCC, the CNAI does not actu­al­ly imple­ment any projects itself. How­ev­er, com­pe­tence cen­ters can serve as impor­tant net­work com­pe­tence hubs of the CNAI and their exper­tise can play a key role in the imple­men­ta­tion of AI projects.

Background

The inter­de­part­men­tal work­ing group on arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (IDAG AI), which was estab­lished in 2018 as part of the updat­ed Dig­i­tal Switzer­land strat­e­gy, was com­mis­sioned in 2019 by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil with the IDAG AI report which drew up a fea­si­bil­i­ty analy­sis. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil sub­se­quent­ly com­mis­sioned the Fed­er­al Depart­ment of Home Affairs (Fed­er­al Sta­tis­ti­cal Office, FSO) and the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery (Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion and ICT Steer­ing Unit, DTI) to con­duct a detailed analy­sis by mid-2021 and to estab­lish the con­crete design of this net­work. In August 2021, it was also decid­ed that the CNAI unit should be oper­a­tional by spring 2022.

Who is involved in creating and developing the CNAI?

The inter­de­part­men­tal CNAI work­ing group con­sists of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the FSO, the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery, the Fed­er­al Administration’s Swiss Dig­i­tal Organ­i­sa­tion (DVS), the Coor­di­nat­ing Agency for Fed­er­al Geo­graph­ic Infor­ma­tion (GCG) and the Fed­er­al Depart­ment of Defence, Civ­il Pro­tec­tion and Sport (DDPS). They take care of the con­crete imple­men­ta­tion of the CNAI and the estab­lish­ment of the unit, which is locat­ed at the Fed­er­al Sta­tis­ti­cal Office. This dynam­ic work­ing group helped to ensure that high-qual­i­ty results were achieved very quick­ly, mean­ing that the CNAI could com­mence its oper­a­tions at the start of 2022. The mot­to “think big, start small, start fast” was at the fore­front of the devel­op­ment. In the future, the CNAI will con­tin­ue to devel­op inter­de­part­men­tal­ly in line with this motto.

The network’s functions and activities

Detailed illus­tra­tion

One of the CNAI’s key tasks is to col­lect, sys­tem­a­tise, bun­dle and dis­sem­i­nate the knowl­edge nec­es­sary for the suc­cess­ful imple­men­ta­tion of AI projects. Based on a ter­mi­nol­o­gy man­age­ment, i.e. a com­mon basic under­stand­ing of the cen­tral terms and a com­mon lan­guage, the CNAI offers the ser­vices of [1] a struc­tured knowl­edge data­base, [2] active knowl­edge exchange, [3] medi­a­tion of decen­tralised experts plus [4] fur­ther, com­ple­men­tary ser­vices. The CNAI unit acts as a cen­tral point of con­tact for AI.

Members

AI is a team effort! One of the CNAI’s main tasks is there­fore ensur­ing net­work­ing between experts, project man­agers, data sci­en­tists, etc. to solve AI-based prob­lems using inter­dis­ci­pli­nary teams. There­fore, the CNAI is con­stant­ly look­ing for inter­est­ed peo­ple, insti­tu­tions, organ­i­sa­tions and com­pa­nies keen to take part in an exchange of this type that are pre­pared to get active­ly involved and share their AI experiences.

How can I participate?

Inter­est­ed indi­vid­u­als, insti­tu­tions, organ­i­sa­tions or com­pa­nies can become part of the com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice. Proven AI experts can also apply to join the com­mu­ni­ty of exper­tise. Would you like to become part of the CNAI? You can reg­is­ter here.