Support Centre for HPC-powered Artificial Intelligence (AI) Applications

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

The action will result in the following expected outcomes:

1. Effective support structure which is widely recognized within the relevant user communities building upon the pan-European support networks available through other initiatives, in particular the EUROCC network of NCCs.
2. Access to a set of large AI models developed by European communities on European HPC systems.
3. Comprehensive training material for AI on supercomputing systems in collaboration with the EuroHPC Academy selected in the call DIGITAL-EUROHPCJU-2023-ACADEMY-02.
4. Significantly increased HPC awareness and HPC uptake by the European AI communities, in particular start-up companies and SMEs.
5. A catalogue of quality-tested training data sets for large-scale AI models.
6. A catalogue of documented AI models available to users for the development of new or specialised models, at least on the supercomputers operated by the participating HPC centres.
7. Documented increased and more effective use of EuroHPC infrastructures for AI.
8. Documented successful knowledge transfer resulting in an expanded service portfolio of the network of NCCs including state of the art support services for large-scale AI.

Central objective of the AISC is the transfer of advanced HPC-AI knowledge to the European AI user and developer communities. As a single access point to the most advanced European competences for large scale AI model development and training, the AISC will build on the existing service portfolio available to European communities, for example through digital innovation hubs, National Competence Centres for HPC or other national and European AI initiatives, with direct support for research, development and innovation in large-scale AI models where domain specific expert knowledge in AI and HPC is required.

The AISC will train and enable European AI communities to benefit from the use of advanced HPC capabilities for large-scale AI models. It will enable users and developers to scale up AI workflows using state of the art supercomputing resources, resulting in the development of complex models with significant impact in Europe such as foundation models for generative AI.

As a European contact point and knowledge hub for large scale AI technology, the AISC will link with and contribute to other initiatives by providing content for training, education and technical assistance in collaboration with the EuroHPC Academy and Application Support Teams.

The action will operate an AISC to assist European AI user communities to fully leverage the innovation potential of large-scale AI models utilizing supercomputing infrastructures.

The AISC will address scientific, societal and industrial applications and user communities that run world leading AI-based codes or ensembles, providing a series of services in order to support their transition to HPC environments and exploit the current and future EuroHPC supercomputing capabilities and federated environment, as well as increasing the HPC awareness and competence in the relevant communities. Proposals for AISC will proactively engage the AI user communities with HPC stakeholders and exploit existing federated resources around Europe, developing HPC-related competences, widening the use and know-how of HPC in European AI communities.

The AISC will rely on the network of National Competence Centres for High Performance Computing (NCCs), established in the EUROCC and CASTIEL initiatives, to delegate support activities with lower complexity for which the NCC network has sufficient competences. The AISC itself will provide HPC support for large-scale AI technology where it falls beyond the scope or competences of the NCCs. Moreover, through collaboration and by providing specialised training and support, the AISC will empower NCCs to increase their service portfolio towards advanced HPC-AI methods and applications. In order to facilitate an effective coordination of the European support services, the AISC will make a report on the provided services available to the CASTIEL Coordination and Support Action at least every 3 months and on a case-by-case basis whenever necessary.