Comment by A. L. Rüland

The EC White Paper on AI, which was published in February 2020, however, called for something that bears resemblance to a CERN for AI, namely “a lighthouse center of research, innovation, and expertise that would coordinate [AI] efforts and be a world reference of excellence in AI” (European Commission 2020: 6; emphasis added). This mention of an AI lighthouse is surprising because according to several interviewed EC officials, the lengthy public consultations running up to the AI White Paper had clearly shown that a majority in the AI community did not favor a central AI hub (INT19), but instead supported a federal, decentralized network of AI excellence centers (INT12). Officially, critics of CERN for AI maintain that there is no need to create a central AI research hub because computing infrastructure can be distributed, as can research teams. AI Verified source (2025)