iGenius and Cineca develop Modello Italia, the first Italian LLM
Rome/Milan Jan. 24, 2024 - iGenius and Cineca are creating a new Foundational Large Language Model to help companies and public administration leverage the benefits of Generative Artificial Intelligence in industries such as healthcare, finance, and national security.
iGenius has been developing AI-powered solutions since 2016. They have been recognized by Gartner as one of the most dynamic companies in the AI Core Technologies field. Cineca is a non-profit inter-university consortium consisting of 118 public entities, including 2 ministries and 70 Italian universities, whose mission is to support innovation and promote the use of the most advanced high-performance scientific computing systems. The Leonardo supercomputer, managed by Cineca, is the sixth (out of the 500) most powerful supercomputer in the world, and the second most powerful in all of Europe.
The agreement signed by iGenius and Cineca will lead to the development of a next-generation Foundational Large Language Model (“Foundational LLM”) - a neural network model at the core of Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT or Crystal. This model will be released under an open-source license, trained with several trillion tokens, and focusing on businesses and public administration, in Italy and Europe.
Reduction of bias and discrimination
The collaboration between iGenius and Cineca will focus on reducing the biases and discrimination that Artificial Intelligence systems often have. “Modello Italia” will be designed and trained with qualitative and controlled data to ensure that Artificial Intelligence is fair and unbiased. This approach aims to ensure that AI models are free of inherent bias and can be used safely in a variety of applications.
Enhancing security for large-scale use in highly critical environments
Security is a key pillar of this initiative. iGenius and Cineca aim to drive responsible and informed innovation in highly regulated industries. The models will be designed to be robust and reliable to ensure optimal performance in highly complex and sensitive production environments (often called mission-critical). The goal is to provide AI solutions that can be deployed on a large scale with maximum security and will contribute to improving decision-making in industries such as healthcare, finance, and national security.
Regulatory compliance and adaptability
A Large Language Model’s design will include a deep understanding of compliance needs, ensuring that AI applications fully comply with current national and international regulations, such as the European AI Act. This is critical to ensure that AI technologies are not only technologically advanced, but also secure, reliable, and legally and regulatory compliant.
Data security and privacy
Data security and privacy will receive special emphasis. In an era where data protection is of great importance, iGenius and Cineca are committed to developing models that meet the highest standards in terms of cybersecurity and privacy protection, a critical factor in all industries and vital in highly regulated ones.
A promising future for Artificial Intelligence
With this collaboration, iGenius and Cineca are committed to shaping the future of Artificial Intelligence, giving Italy a leading perspective in the field of highly advanced technology.
Not only does “Modello Italia” represent a significant step forward in the large-scale application of Generative Artificial Intelligence, but it also focuses on ethics, sustainability, and security, making the benefits of Artificial Intelligence accessible to all.
“Language models have the power to democratize knowledge. And this will only happen if every country and every language can be represented by these models,” said iGenius Founder and CEO Uljan Sharka. “No one better than the Italians can turn their language into superpowers. Modello Italia, a Generative AI model, does not just represent our language but also one of the most sophisticated cultures through art, culture, and everything we’re so well known for. A prime example of the digital Renaissance, where humans come first. On behalf of iGenius, I am proud to join forces with Cineca, another example of Italian excellence, to support the country’s ecosystem.”
iGenius General Manager Stefano Parisse added, "We are proud to be working on this project. We believe Italy can create AI products of excellence. iGenius is ready to work with a new ecosystem of organizations that, will give birth to unique solutions for enterprises and Italian, European, and global institutions thanks to Modello Italia.”
“This is really good news for our country and Europe. The best way to kick off 2024. Italy can boast one of the best public supercomputing infrastructures in the world and, thanks to this, today an Italian startup enters the international arena of language models, with a solution that is completely open, reliable, and fully compliant with national and European principles,” said Cineca President Francesco Ubertini. “The Italian Model will be an extraordinary enabling factor for businesses and public administration in accelerating digital innovation.”
“Cineca is a consortium, and as such, is founded on the power of synergy and collaboration. We are honored to have embarked on this adventure, which through the use of the supercomputing infrastructure will be able to develop the first language model for intelligence natively in Italian, so as to allow our country to be an active player in the digital transition.” -Alessandra Poggiani, Cineca Director General.
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