Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOS
14.04.2021
AICeBlock is the project, led by Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS (FhP-AICOS), that became a finalist at the IN3+ award, organized by the National Press Casa da Moeda (INCM). AICeBlock proposes a platform to support the certification of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. A turning point in science and in the world, which has been granted 2nd place and awarded a 250.000€ money prize.
Whether applied to health and medicine, whether in industry or retail, the truth is that the concept of AI has revolutionized the world of technology. Through predictive methods and models for decision support, Artificial Intelligence also raises many insecurities and doubts regarding its reliability and confidence. AICeBlock has been created exactly to change that reality and increase confidence in AI applications.
AICeBlock consists of building a modular platform supported by a 'blockchain' structure, allowing to track the entire process, from the data that was used to train the algorithms to the exact version of the model that is used in each decision, that is, the dynamic system becomes auditable.
The AICeBlock team consists of André Carreiro, Filipe Soares and João Gonçalves, all FhP-AICOS’ researchers. For André Carreiro, leader of the winning project, “it is not possible to talk about the future without talking about Artificial Intelligence”. The objective is, “after one year, to start validating the technology and, after three, enter the AI certification market”, adds the researcher. “What I expect from AICeBlock in the future is that it will be a tool that brings great contributions to humanity and that just like AI is a powerful tool, AICeBlock comes to undertake the responsibility in the use and development of AI”, underlines João Gonçalves.
Filipe Soares admits that “with AICeBlock we believe in bringing a more robust process, a framework that will bring not only security and transparency to products based on AI, but also allow collaboration between entities with different roles. Entities focused on data collection, others focused on the development of AI models and the ones that will use these models.”
“Winning this award is a giant step towards increasing confidence in AI applications”, highlights André Carreiro, who reinforces that “this INCM award proves that there is good science in Portugal, there is innovation in universities, institutes, and start-ups and, bringing it to the forefront is always positive”.
The 3rd edition of the IN3 + Award received 87 applications, an increase of 163% over the previous edition. Among the dozens of ideas presented, the AICeBlock project took second place, winning a prize of € 250,000. In 1st place (600.000 €) was the IDINA project, from INESC-TEC and in 3rd place, with a prize of 150.000 €, was the HIGHLIGHT project, from Universidade Nova de Lisboa. The awards ceremony took place on 29 March.