Comment by Kevin Kohler

Panelists emphasized that talent isn’t solely drawn by salaries. A CERN for AI needs a clear mission for the public good. Examples like India’s Aadhaar system or the UK’s AI Security Institute show that visionary public projects can rally top-tier technical talent even in competition with the giant salaries from tech giants, if they prioritize mission and impact over bureaucratic processes. If we create artificial general intelligence, solely using it to addict teens to chatbots rather than to solve humanity’s grand challenges would seem like an absurd misuse of potential. [...] Technology is moving fast and we are in a challenging geopolitical environment. While some participants highlighted that Silicon Valley’s stated AGI timelines require a cautious and critical perspective, others underscored that AI risks are increasingly relevant either way, including misinformation and truth decay. Overall, there was a shared sense of urgency about the narrowing window of opportunity for a coalition of actors to advance a more collaborative, globally oriented vision of AI for the public good. It will take several years for Europe’s new AI Gigafactories to become operational. However, a CERN for AI could start its mission immediately by allocating GPU hours from public and commercial clouds to researchers. Similarly, while it would be impossible to create a “de novo” AI talent hub within a brief period of time, an existing AI talent ecosystem can be chosen as a starting point for a CERN for AI hub.