Building Trustworthy AI for Europe’s Future: ELLIOT, ETH Zürich, CSC – and Let’s not Forget Kajaani!

Image: LUMI Supercomputer by Mikael Kanerva, CSC. Copyright CSC. LUMI photos for media. 

Text: Essi Ryymin 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer just about self-driving cars or clever chatbots. Increasingly, it is our partner in building society, helping to understand climate change, create new medicines, and even ensure that online information can be trusted. But with AI’s growing power comes a responsibility: how do we make it reliable, open, and beneficial for everyone?

That’s where ELLIOT comes in. Backed by the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, this flagship project brings together 30 organisations from 12 countries to design a new generation of AI, systems that can handle many kinds of data at once, from videos and text to satellite signals and industrial sensors. Unlike today’s often narrow AI models, ELLIOT aims to create “generalist” AI that can adapt to real-world complexity, and do so transparently and responsibly.

ETH Zürich – knowledge at the cutting edge

ETH Zürich, one of Europe’s most prestigious technical universities, plays a central role. With decades of pioneering work in computing and engineering, ETH helps shape ELLIOT’s scientific backbone. But the university isn’t only about algorithms — it also brings expertise in ethics, fairness, and regulation. This ensures that the models built aren’t just powerful but also trustworthy, in line with European values of openness and accountability.

CSC and the quiet power of Kajaani

Then there’s CSC – IT Center for Science in Finland, home to the LUMI supercomputer. And here’s where the story gets interesting: LUMI doesn’t sit in Helsinki, Berlin, or Zürich, but in Kajaani, a small Finnish town that many Europeans, and even many Finns, struggle to locate on a map. For decades Kajaani was known for its paper mills. Today, it’s where some of the world’s biggest AI models are being trained. This reminds us that innovations emerge also from the quiet, behind-the-scenes work, not just from what's in the public eye.  

CSC is Finland’s non-profit, state- and university-owned IT expert organisation and a key part of the country’s research infrastructure. It provides supercomputing (including hosting the LUMI), cloud services, research data management, and the Funet national research network. CSC also develops digital solutions to support research, education, culture, and public administration. Would I be too poetic to formulate that the sharp thinking of CSC, powered by the ice-cold brains of LUMI, is ultimately directed toward serving the shared needs and aspirations of humanity?

Why this matters for Europe

Fundamentally, this all is about autonomy and confidence. By building AI infrastructure openly in Europe, and ensuring results are transparent and widely shared, the projects help reduce dependency on proprietary systems developed elsewhere. That means European researchers, educators, and companies can innovate on their own terms.

The benefits reach far beyond labs and supercomputers. Climate scientists will gain sharper models for understanding earth’s systems. Journalists can (soon) use AI to help fact-check faster. Educators will have new tools to strengthen, e.g., digital citizenship education. Public services can become more efficient and responsive.

Together, ETH Zürich, CSC, Kajaani and their European partners are showing that AI doesn’t have to be a black box controlled by a handful of companies. Instead, it can be a shared resource, built on openness, responsibility, and creativity. ​

​ ➡️ Did you know? Kajaani & LUMI

• Kajaani, a small town located about 550 kilometers north of Helsinki, used to be earlier known for its paper mills. Today, it hosts LUMI, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers.
• LUMI is installed in a former paper factory being a nice symbol of Finland’s transformation from heavy industry to high-tech innovation.
• The name LUMI means snow in Finnish, which is quite appropriate, since Kajaani sees snow for nearly half the year, and the cool climate is ideal for supercomputer servers.
• Despite its size and power, LUMI is one of the world’s most environmentally friendly supercomputers, running almost entirely on renewable hydroelectric energy.
• Kajaani is also very well known in international game industry due to its recognised studies of game development in Kajaani University of Applied Sciences. If you haven’t come across this, you have probably heard about Critical Ops (Critical Force), Stumble Guys (Kitka Games), Supercell, Housemarque, Remedy, and Ubisoft.

And finally, slightly off the topic, but still staying in Kajaani  

​If your interests lie in AI only, you can very well skip the following!

Kajaani is a town founded in 1651. It has risen from the ashes numerous times throughout its history, both literally and figuratively. Or rather, the people of Kajaani have pulled themselves out of the swamp by their hair, like Baron von Münchhausen. 

​Kajaani's strange fate has always been to drop off the official radar in Finland. For instance, YLE, Finland's national media company, produced a ten-part series filmed from a helicopter using 4K technology, which presented "the whole of Finland" as a tribute to Finland's 100-year-old independence in 2017. The material was filmed for four (!) years. However, Kajaani and its entire administrative region Kainuu (22 688 km² in 2021) were forgotten from the film. When the people of Kajaani, true to their typical style, politely and without making a fuss, wondered about this, YLE answered that unfortunately, there was not enough money and time for everything. The weather was also pretty bad. 

And now, I can hear a Swedish gent in the back row asking whether it was a matter of national security to skip Kajaani from the film? Thanks for asking, but no, it was not a security-related decision, as the entire country is practically a security-critical area, as you should very well know. It is more a case of neglecting remote areas, with viral attention particularly focused on growing cities. The majority of the region consists of forests and sparsely populated wilderness, and throughout its history, the region has struggled under the weight of profound poverty.

Many other regions in Europe face the same challenge. Yet it is precisely these "easy to forget" regions, from which no one expects anything, that can surprise us with innovations that are squeezed out of the pressure of being remote, like diamonds. 

So, there's certainly something about Kajaani. But I'm a bit biased source here, obviously. Kajaani is my hometown, and the story of my family is deeply intertwined with its struggles, hardships, and enduring spirit of resilience. 

​The ever-changing Kajaani is a quiet gem, revealed only to those who truly know how to see.

Image: LUMI data center at Renforsin Ranta business park in Kajaani, Finland by Mikael Kanerva, CSC.  Copyright CSC. LUMI photos for media. ​ 

Tiivistelmä suomeksi:

Luotettavaa tekoälyä Euroopan tulevaisuudelle: ELLIOT, ETH Zürich, CSC - ja Kajaani!

ELLIOT on EU:n Horizon Europe -ohjelman lippulaivahanke, jossa 30 organisaatiota 12 maasta kehittää uuden sukupolven avoimia, monimuotoisia tekoälymalleja. Tavoitteena on rakentaa läpinäkyvää ja vastuullista tekoälyä, joka pystyy käsittelemään monenlaista dataa ja toimimaan luotettavasti tosielämän monimutkaisissa ympäristöissä.

ETH Zürich tuo hankkeeseen huipputason tutkimusosaamista ja eettistä näkökulmaa, kun taas CSC - IT Center for Science vastaa superlaskennasta, muun muassa LUMI-supertietokoneen avulla. LUMI sijaitsee Kainuussa, Kajaanissa, kaupungissa, joka on ehkä usein jäänyt valtakunnallisen huomion ulkopuolelle, mutta joka on nostanut itsensä hiuksista ylös kerta toisensa jälkeen historiansa aikana. Paperitehtaan tiloihin asennettu LUMI on yksi maailman nopeimmista ja ympäristöystävällisimmistä supertietokoneista, ja symboloi osaltaan Kajaanin kehittymistä metsäteollisuudesta kohti huipputeknologiaa.

Yhteistyön merkitys ulottuu laajalle: ilmastotutkijat saavat tarkempia mallinnuksia, toimittajat (pian) uusia välineitä faktantarkistukseen, opettajat resursseja oppimisen kehittämiseen ja julkiset palvelut parempia työkaluja toimintaansa. Tärkeintä on riippumattomuus niistä monikansallisista, kaupallisista yhtiöistä, joiden algoritmit kytkeytyvät tavalla toisella arvoitukseksi jäävään ansaintalogiikkaan ja arvomaailmaan. 

Kajaani on vuolaiden vesien ympäröimä kaupunki, mutta veri virtaa vettäkin sakeampana; olen syntynyt Kajaanissa ja näin ollen olen sen menneisyyden muokkaama itsekin. Vaikka yritän tarkastella kaupunkia etäältä, huomaan olevani aina vähän puolueellinen, Kajaanin puolella. 

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