Artificial intelligence in the Greater Zurich Area

Researchers in Greater Zurich want to make machines not only more capable but also better learners. For instance, the ETH AI Center with over 93 professorships focuses on AI foundations and applications across all departments and promotes trustworthy AI. The mission of the Robotics and Perception Group of the University of Zurich is to develop autonomous machines that can navigate all by themselves using only onboard cameras, without relying on external infrastructures, such as GPS or motion capture systems. In Lugano, the work of the Swiss AI Lab IDSIA focuses on machine learning (deep neural networks, reinforcement learning), operations research, data mining, and robotics. In addition, the universities of Southern Swizterland USI and SUPSI offer AI degree programs, thereby strengthening Greater Zurich's pool of talents even more. 

Google has been strongly investing in its Zurich location (the company’s largest R&D hub outside the U.S.) by increasing its workforce of roughly 3,000 by adding AI and machine learning specialists and with plans to increase its total workforce in the region to 5,000. From cutting edge startups like Teralytics, Starmind and Squiro to multinationals such as Apple, Disney, Facebook, Google, Huawei, IBM, Magic Leap, Microsoft, Oracle, Samsung and Sony a growing number of companies have R&D labs in the Greater Zurich Area, many of them in collaboration with Swiss universities and institutions.

Greater Zurich has been one of the first movers when it comes to AI adaption. In the late 80s, two pioneering researchers laid the ground for modern-day AI. Jürgen Schmiedhuber, professor at IDSIA, pioneered the deep learning method with his groundbreaking neural network research. At the same time, Dr. Rolf Pfeifer, professor emeritus at the University of Zurich and former head of its AI research lab was among the very few with an interest in humanoid robots and artificial intelligence. After a series of unfruitful trials of experimenting with an algorithm, he made a mid-career shift from algorithm research to robotics in the 90s. He came to the conclusion that artificial intelligence has to be a stand-alone organism. Today, Pfeifer proposes that realistic communications and employing the concepts of embodiment are key in coping with the “AI hype”.