A mix of data research, artificial intelligence and archaeology led to lively discussions on 31 January. On that day the unique event 'AI & Data Science @ Archaeology' took place in which the Data Science Research Programme (DSRP), SAILS and the Faculty of Archaeology joined forces.

Yesterday, the European Commission presented its long-anticipated proposal for an AI regulation. After the Commission had outlined the European legislation at the start of 2020 in its white paper on artificial intelligence ‘A European approach to excellence and trust’, a concrete proposal for a European regulation is now on the table.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has great potential for healthcare, but it is not always clear in what way, and many healthcare professionals are still reluctant to use AI. On June 28, the ‘Demystifying AI in Healthcare’ symposium aimed to improve this issue. Different professionals in the field went beyond the hype to explore the real impact of AI in healthcare.

On 13 January 2020, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has named 95 members ACM Fellows who have demonstrated excellence across many disciplines of computing. Among the new ACM Fellows is Professor Holger Hoos of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science, who was specifically selected for his contributions to automated algorithm selection and configuration for optimisation and machine learning: techniques that have had transformative impact in artificial intelligence and beyond. He is only the third recipient in the Netherlands in the history of this prestigious award, after Andy Tanenbaum at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Martin Kersten at CWI, both of whom are now retired.

At Leiden University, researchers from all disciplines work together to find answers and design innovations in the field of artificial intelligence.

You can do a degree in Artificial Intelligence at Leiden University, but its role is also increasing in other degree programmes.

The more people are vaccinated, the more society can slowly reopen. Technological developments, like the Covid passport and other apps, can play a role in this. Artificial Intelligence could help greatly in developing the vaccine passport and the Covid-19 exposure notification app, Anne Meuwese and Bart Custers claimed in Dutch newspaper Trouw on 1 April 2021.

Artificial intelligence systems are smart. They can recognize patterns better than humans, for example. Yet humans are still very much needed. How can you better steer those AI systems? LIACS lecturer Jan van Rijn wrote a book about this together with a number of colleagues. We asked him a few questions.

IT lawyer Eduard Fosch Villaronga wants to promote diversity and inclusiveness in AI research. And that's really important, because he has observed how artificial intelligence - from Twitter to walking robots - is prejudice in terms of race, gender and sexual orientation.

Ever heard of conversational artificial intelligence (AI)? Anyone who has ever interacted with Siri or Alexa is familiar with this technology. We use conversational AI every day these days and it is becoming increasingly important in service and sales. A consortium of Dutch scientists and companies is receiving 4.6 million euros from NWO to develop Dutch chatbot technology that can be efficiently adapted for specific topics and companies.