Lighthouse for sovereign AI development in Germany:  Aleph Alpha strengthens collaboration with the IPAI ecosystem for open and application-oriented research and development in GenAI

25.07.2024, Heidelberg

• Aleph Alpha is intensifying its collaboration with the Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (IPAI) and has founded a company dedicated to applied AI research. Aleph Alpha Research will receive 300 million euros in long-term research and development funding and is led by Aleph Alpha’s Co-Founder Samuel Weinbach and the recently appointed Dr. Yasser Jadidi, who serves as Chief Research Officer
• The primary objective of Aleph Alpha Research is the advancement of innovative new approaches for working with AI and designing human-machine collaboration. The research is collaborative and open, with the goal of making developed AI models and algorithms, as well as the underlying training code, freely accessible for research and educational purposes
• As part of the IPAI ecosystem, Aleph Alpha Research will work in collaboration with leading European research institutions and companies

With Aleph Alpha Research, Aleph Alpha and IPAI are intensifying their collaboration for research and development of generative AI. As part of the investment round in December 2023, Aleph Alpha Research was provided with an initial funding of 300 million euros to strengthen the development of sovereign generative AI.

Aleph Alpha Research focuses on the research and development of large language models and application environments. These enable Aleph Alpha’s business and customers to harness the potential of trustworthy, accessible, transparent and explainable AI. This AI research is underpinned by the financial resources provided by the investor consortium. The research results will be made publicly available to serve the broad public, the research community and educational institutions.

The objectives of these research activities is to develop methods that enable data- and compute-efficient adaptation of large language models and solutions to specific application requirements, as well as efficient expansion to previously unseen languages and domains. Another key area of focus for the new unit is the continued development of Aleph Alpha’s AI solutions for the traceability and auditability of AI models and applications.

Aleph Alpha Research is owned by the non-profit IPAI Foundation and is linked to Aleph Alpha by an exclusive license agreement for the commercialization of all research results as part of an open research ecosystem. This enables Aleph Alpha Research to collaborate with academic and industrial partners in close coordination with Aleph Alpha. Together with these leading European research institutions and companies within the IPAI ecosystem, cutting-edge AI solutions are developed to address specific application challenges.

The models, algorithms, and source code used for training will be made freely available for research and educational purposes, fostering innovation and knowledge sharing.

Jonas Andrulis, CEO Aleph Alpha: “At a time when many AI start-ups are forced to keep their innovations secret and give up their independence in order to grow, the collaboration with IPAI enables us to sustainably ensure sovereignty and open research at the highest level. Being part of this ecosystem is inspiring for our team and an important factor in attracting top talent from around the world to our mission.”

Moritz Gräter, CEO IPAI: “Aleph Alpha Research and IPAI pursue a collaborative and open approach. We are committed to working together with our member companies and excellent research institutions from across Europe on specific application problems with generative AI – and thus enabling innovative value creation. This will strengthen Baden-Württemberg, Germany and Europe as a hub for innovation and competitiveness. We want to attract the best talent from around the globe to the IPAI ecosystem.”

Aleph Alpha Research is led by Aleph Alpha Co-Founder Samuel Weinbach, together with Dr. Yasser Jadidi. Samuel Weinbach has played a pivotal role in the advancement of numerous Aleph Alpha technological innovations, including the explainability of large language model behaviour. Samuel Weinbach will be supported by Dr. Yasser Jadidi, who brings his considerable experience as head of research and development teams to his new role as Chief Research Officer, most recently at AWS and previously as head of AI research at Bosch.

Dr. Yasser Jadidi and Samuel Weinbach on their new roles: “The close, open exchange with industry partners in the interdisciplinary IPAI ecosystem provides the foundation for continuous optimization of our differentiating AI technology. Our aim is not to achieve impressive results on generic benchmarks, but instead to develop domain-specific applications that deliver real added value. Adapting to the specific requirements of concrete industrial applications is essential to demonstrate economic productivity gains.”