CeADAR director Edward McDonnell. Image: Nick Bradshaw
The research centre has expanded its Lighthouse Projects Programme, which focuses on helping member companies stay on top of AI and machine learning advances.
AI has taken the main stage in the tech sector, with new innovations and companies racing to adopt its capabilities into their services.
The last few months have seen the rise of ChatGPT, with companies large and small integrating it into their own products or creating potential rivals. The creator of ChatGPT, OpenAI, has also launched a new large language model this week.
But the rapid rate of advancement means that companies are struggling to keep up, according to CeADAR, the Irish research centre for applied AI.
The centre said various companies are trying to stay on top of the rapid advancements taking place in AI and machine learning.
To boost struggling businesses, CeADAR said it has expanded its Lighthouse Projects Programme, which focuses on helping member companies with advances in these fields.
The first two Lighthouse Projects ran at the end of 2022, which were on self-supervised learning and privacy preserving machine learning.
CeADAR said that the feedback was “overwhelmingly positive”, which has prompted the research centre to launch two new projects.
The first of these looks at digital twins, which uses AI technology to create simulations for predicting the performance of a product or process, for various applications.
The second project will show companies how data analysis and machine learning can be combined on data graphs, to help companies “add value to existing products and services”.
“The rapid pace at which advances are being made in the areas of AI and machine learning is incredible,” said CeADAR director Edward McDonnell. “So much so, it can be bewildering for some companies and many are struggling to keep up.
“CeADAR does the heavy lifting and makes the emerging and existing AI techniques understandable and implementable so busy business leaders and technical experts can try them out and see the benefits they bring to their business first hand before taking the plunge in adopting them.”
One member company is OpenSky, which focuses on enterprise automation services. The company participated in last year’s Lighthouse Projects and has committed two engineers to take part in this year’s programme.
OpenSky’s research projects division manager Tudor Pitulac said the move is aimed at keeping its employees “in touch with the latest advancements in technology and research”.
“Participation in the Lighthouse Projects has three main objectives: to accelerate the adoption of new technologies, better understand the path from an idea to market, and have the participating employees share the knowledge and experience gained with other employees,” Pitulac said.
A recent forecast by the International Data Corporation predicts that global spending on AI systems is expected to reach $154bn this year, rising to more than $300bn by 2026
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