Keynote by Prof. Edward Curry

Title: The Symbiotic Relationship between Data Spaces and AI. Challenges and Trends

Abstract

Two significant trends have significantly changed the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Data landscape. Recent AI and Machine Learning developments drive a paradigm shift to creating large task-agnostic models pre-trained using web-scale data. These Foundational Models are then adapted to different downstream tasks via techniques such as fine-tuning. At the same time, we see a movement to the creation of large-scale data-sharing infrastructures. Data Spaces are an emerging approach to data management, sharing, and collaboration at the core of the European Data Strategy. This talk will explore the symbiotic relationship between data spaces and AI and delves into the complexities of this relationship, highlighting how data spaces facilitate the seamless flow of data essential for AI training. If managed effectively, this symbiotic relationship can unlock new frontiers in AI research, paving the way for a more connected and intelligent world. Key challenges discussed include data privacy, standardisation, interoperability, and the need for robust data governance frameworks. The talk examines emerging trends such as neuro-symbolic AI, the rise of synthetic data, and the increasing importance of ethical and trustworthy AI practices.

About the speaker:

Currently Established Professor of Data Science and Director of the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics and Data Science Institute at NUI Galway. Prof. Edward Curry Earned PhD from NUI Galway in 2006. Edward has made substantial contributions to semantic technologies, incremental data management, event processing middleware, software engineering, as well as distributed systems and information systems. He combines strong theoretical results with high-impact practical applications. He published over 200 peer-reviewed papers with 4,900+ citations and H-index of 36. Edward is co-founder and elected Vice President of the Big Data Value Association, an industry-led European big data community, has built consensus on a joint European big data research and innovation agenda and influenced European data innovation policy to deliver on the agenda. In 2021 he was a member of the founding board of the Adra-Association, which represents the private-side of the AI, Data and Robotics partnership in Horizon Europe.
He serves as an expert for industry, the European Commission, NWO, FWO, FWF, SNSF, and the European Marine Board. He chairs the advisory board of the Big Data for Smart Society Institute (GATE) in Sofia, Bulgaria.