Large AI Grand Challenge
Large-scale AI models refer to a new generation of general-purpose AI systems that can adapt to various domains and tasks without significant modification. Thanks to their adaptability, these models hold immense potential to revolutionise various industries. Notable examples of large-scale AI models include OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Meta’s LLaMA 2. It is of strategic importance for European sovereignty to ensure European companies master this field.
Participants in the Grand Challenge are invited to submit a proposal for the development of a language foundation model, utilising one of the EuroHPC JU targeted facilities (i.e. LUMI or Leonardo supercomputers). The model must be trained from scratch, possess a minimum of 30 billion parameters, and be trained following state-of-the-art optimal scaling laws for computing and training data size.
Objectives
The purpose of the Large AI Grand Challenge is to foster the development of large-scale AI models in Europe and substantially increase the visibility of Europe’s activity in this field.
The expected outcome of the Large AI Grand Challenge is the selection of up to four proposals to create innovative foundational language models that will outperform state-of-the-art systems in a number of relevant tasks. The development of these models should necessarily involve the use of High-Performance Computing (HPC).
Eligibility
To be eligible to apply to the Large AI Grand Challenge, applicants must meet the four following criteria:
- Be a single legal entity
- Be a small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this includes startups;
- Have technical capacity AND experience working on large-scale AI models. Also consider that projects must focus exclusively on civil applications;
- Be established in one of the Member States (MS) of the European Union (EU), including overseas countries and territories (OCTs).
Please not that consortiums are NOT eligible within this Large AI Grand Challenge, as well as single legal entities that are NOT an SMEs (e.g., universities, research centres; NGOs, governmental organisations, large companies, etc.).
Budget
The available budget for monetary prizes of the Large AI Grand Challenge is 1.000.000€. The money will be awarded by the panel of the Large AI Grand Challenge to up to four proposals, as follows:
- LUMI Winner: Up to two prizes of 250,000€ and an allocation of 2 million GPU hours on the LUMI facility per project. This allocation will be used to develop the large-scale AI model described in the proposals in the 12 months following the prize awards.
- Leonardo Winner: Up to two prizes of 250,000€ and an allocation of 2 million GPU hours on the Leonardo facility per project. This allocation will be used to develop the large-scale AI model described in the proposals in the 12 months following the prize awards.
The awarded organisation will also get:
- The change to be a part of a network sponsored by European Commission DG Connect – CNECT AI and Robotics and EuroHPC-JU;
- The opportunity to make use of EuroHPC-JU facilities and target supercomputers.
Other information
The Large AI Grand Challenge is open from 16 November 2023, 12h CET to 16 January 2024, 17h CET.
Please apply via the F6S platform.
