Prague to become centre for artificial intelligence

The City of Prague has announced it will compete to become one of Europe's centres of excellence in artificial intelligence (AI). The city's plan follows the European Commission's call for a European Network of AI Excellence Centres which the Commission will fund with €50 million in 2020. "We want to be the centre for AI but we know that we are not the only ones," Jaromír Beránek, Deputy of the Prague City Assembly and Head of the IT and Smart City Committee told Cities Today. "We want to compete with European and world cities like Montreal which is also very renowned for building AI technologies." Beránek said that although the push has been inspired by the Commission's call, the city was already looking for a specialised skill for Prague, noting that the neighbouring cities of Brno and Libež are world renowned in microscopy and nano technology.