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Prof. Andrea E. Rizzoli: AI-research for science in Europe is outstanding

Andrea Emilio Rizzoli is a distinguished researcher and professor with dual Swiss and Italian citizenship. Currently, he is the director of the Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull’Intelligenza Artificiale (IDSIA USI-SUPSI), a professor at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) and adjunct professor at the Faculty of Informatics of Università della Svizzera Italiana.

His research interests include decision support systems, modelling and simulation of dynamic systems, and the application of operations research and artificial intelligence techniques to natural resource management. Throughout his career, Rizzoli has authored over 200 publications and has been recognised with several awards, including the Early Career Research Excellence award by the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Improving AI

In his keynote, Prof. Andrea E. Rizzoli showed how AI can foster scientific progress and what challenges the use of AI in scientific discovery poses. He also addressed what European researchers can do to improve the way AI is used in the scientific context as well as in society at large.

The impact of AI on scientific progress is huge, according to Rizzoli: “Just think of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Baker and Hassabis, the latter a co-founder of DeepMind, an AI company. Yet, I do not think that the progress we observe is due to the rapid development of AI. On the contrary, the current impact of AI on scientific research is the result of decades of research. We are just reaping the fruits. At the same time, the recent developments of Generative AI are already producing promising results, and there’s for sure more to come.”

The cost-benefit ratio

AI and sustainability is a very hot topic, Rizzoli acknowledges. “On one side we see the impact of AI-enhanced research which can make better use of data at scale, increasing, for instance, the resolution of climate change models, or solving complex optimal management problems by means of reinforcement learning, or producing better forecasts of extreme events. On the other side, there are the increasing energy costs of training huge AI models, and the cost-benefit ratio is still uncertain.” 

AI-research for science in Europe is outstanding, he emphasizes. “For instance, there could have not been AlphaFold, the AI tool that won the Nobel Prize for Deepmind, without the data collected and provided by the European  Molecular Biology Laboratory. Yet investments in research are lagging, and despite the promising efforts of the various funding programmes of the EU, the working conditions to attract top-tier researchers in European universities are still not there. We have a unique opportunity to attract AI talent in Europe, given the current geopolitical situation, and yet our Universities are not yet prepared.”  

Want to read more about AI?

You can find the full range of AI stories and more information on the activities of Wageningen University & Research in the area of artificial intelligence on the AI theme page, or visit the Artificial Intelligence Group.