The SATW supports projects in the field of artificial intelligence

SATW supported a team of EPFL researchers led by SATW expert Prof. Karl Aberer in planning, implementing and publicising the pilot project, which is presented in this factsheet. The use case was carried out on behalf of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and is representative of comparable situations in industry and administration.

Many organisations are looking at how they can make better use of their extensive document resources with the help of automated text analysis. Tech giants are driving development through the use of artificial intelligence. However, the framework conditions vary greatly. For example, these tech giants have huge amounts of data and extensive feedback from users, which can be used to train text analysis algorithms.

However, in many industrial and administrative applications - including in public administration - data sets are limited and feedback comes at most from experts. For these organisations, the question therefore arises as to what extent global technical progress in document analysis can also be used profitably in specialised fields of application in order to make better use of the available information and relieve end users of routine tasks.

SATW supported a team of EPFL researchers led by SATW expert Prof. Karl Aberer in planning, implementing and publicising the pilot project, which is presented in this factsheet. The use case was carried out on behalf of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and is representative of comparable situations in industry and administration. There was particular interest in the automated text analysis of international agreements and legal obligations in order to monitor them more easily and improve the quality of monitoring.

In the field of artificial intelligence (AI), the SATW has a thematic platform and a priority programme, regularly organises dialogue formats and issues publications - both in collaboration with experts and partner organisations. The SATW is also very active in the area of data, because AI does not work without data. In spring 2021, the SATW, together with the FDFA's Directorate of International Law, the Federal Office of Communications and the Swiss Data Alliance, founded the national "Digital Self-Determination Network" to enable citizens, companies and public institutions to use the data economy on the basis of fundamental liberal and democratic values.

Factsheet: The automatic processing of natural language (in German)