Comment by Mary-Anne Hartley

Yeah, sure. I think what we all saw with the use case over there is what is possible when people work together and when they are convened on purpose, right? And with a specific purpose in mind. It’s so important. And to formalize that around these resources that we do have in Switzerland, we’ve made ICANN, which stands for the International Computing and AI Network. Now, while it has been convened in Switzerland, it is intentionally international. It has a principle of decentralization, democratization of the resources that we have available, often in higher resource settings. And to convene, as you can see here in blue, the mission, to convene people working together and to broaden access to these really essential resources, such as massive scale compute. It’s a very big deal what the Swiss government has done here, but not just in Switzerland, but around the world. And you’ll see that that’s the important word up there is network, where you can see the different partners that we’ve already convened around this, who are also donating their compute to this cause. And data, massive scale data. This data is important to curate. AI is data. We can’t just compute thin air. So it’s important that we convene on data that is purposeful and meaningful and directed. And indeed, we can’t do anything with data and compute if we don’t have the talent. And not just the talent of making models, but the talent of understanding where those models can be used and can be impactful. And the most important thing that we’re convening around is that we’re convening around, as I said before, a purpose. And that purpose, just like kind of CERN for AI, you can think of it like that.
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AI Verified The quote directly discusses establishing an intentionally international AI organization/network in Switzerland, focused on shared compute, data, talent, and collaboration, and explicitly says it is "kind of CERN for AI." That matches the full idea of creating a global AI institution similar to CERN. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
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AI Verified The quote supports it by describing that they have made an 'International Computing and AI Network,' 'intentionally international,' to convene people and resources, and says it is 'just like kind of CERN for AI.' · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
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AI Verified The quote clearly implies opposition to limiting a CERN-for-AI-style initiative to EU members: the speaker says the effort is "intentionally international," aims to "broaden access," and is meant to operate "around the world," then explicitly compares this purpose to "CERN for AI." · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 17d ago
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AI Verified The quote describes the effort as "intentionally international," aiming to "broaden access" "around the world," which clearly conflicts with restricting it to EU member states. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 17d ago

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AI Verified The quote is authentic. The provided Digital Watch Observatory event page for the AI for Good Global Summit 2025 is dated 10 Jul 2025, and its transcript attributes the passage directly to “Mary-Anne Hartley.” The text at lines 239-242 matches the submitted quote verbatim in substance, including the ICANN expansion, decentralization/democratization language, compute/data/talent points, and the closing “CERN for AI” comparison. ([dig.watch](https://dig.watch/event/ai-for-good-global-summit-2025/democratizing-ai-open-foundations-and-shared-resources-for-global-impact)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
AI Verified Verified. dig.watch URL returned 403 but web search results confirm: (1) Mary-Anne Hartley is an Adjunct Professor at EPFL's Lab for Intelligent Global Health (matches biography "EPFL physician; ICANN initiative"); (2) the initiative she describes is real — Swiss-led ICAIN (International Computation and AI Network), founded by Swiss foreign ministry, ETH Zurich, EPFL and partners, matchmaking scientific projects with cutting-edge supercomputers, headquartered in Switzerland with an explicit "CERN for AI" framing; (3) the quote's substance — decentralization, democratization of compute/data/talent, convening around a purpose, international network — exactly matches public descriptions of ICAIN. The transcript renders the acronym as "ICANN" and expands it as "International Computing and AI Network" — minor transcription discrepancy from the official "ICAIN / International Computation and AI Network", but this is consistent with a live-speech transcript on dig.watch from the AI for Good Global Summit 2025 (year correct). Vote "for" on "Create a global institute for AI, similar to CERN" aligns with the explicit "just like kind of CERN for AI" comparison. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 1mo ago
replying to Mary-Anne Hartley