Sarah Levy, Swisscom: "Sovereignty accelerates AI innovation"
When it comes to artificial intelligence, Switzerland is feeling its way between opportunities and restraint. Sarah Levy, Head of Swiss AI Platform at Swisscom, explains why digital sovereignty is crucial.
The lawyer and head of the Swiss AI Platform talks to Christoph Soltmannowski in the Text Academy's AI podcast about how Swisscom is already using AI and how difficult the widespread introduction in Switzerland still is.
Swisscom is already using AI in a variety of ways: The virtual assistant "Sam" processes millions of customer inquiries independently. AI also provides support with programming, knowledge queries and network optimization. Swisscom is investing over CHF 100 million in the expansion - in Switzerland and Italy. The Swiss AI Platform runs in Swiss data centers and is primarily aimed at regulated industries such as banking and healthcare.
Hurdles slow down Swiss companies
Many companies get stuck at the pilot stage. The reasons for this are a lack of expertise, high costs and data protection issues. While international companies take a more experimental approach, Switzerland focuses on quality and security - which slows down progress but makes it sustainable. For Levy, digital sovereignty is key to reducing dependencies on foreign models and infrastructures, especially when it comes to sensitive data.
For Levy, responsible AI means transparency, fairness and security. She warns against the externalization of key social issues if we rely unilaterally on foreign models. If Switzerland is to remain independent, it needs strategies to strengthen its resilience.
Apertus as a milestone for independence
The new language model Apertus, developed by ETH and EPFL, marks a step in this direction. It takes into account all national languages, including Romansh, and is hosted by Swisscom in secure data centers. This makes it easy for companies to integrate.
Swisscom wants to shape the ecosystem. The aim is to bring AI into everyday life - through pilot projects, scaling and trust. For the future, Levy sees Switzerland in a leading role in sovereign AI: as an active shaper of a technology that gives people more time for creativity and real encounters.
This episode is also available on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts.
The video podcast "AI and Society - Paths into the New World" is produced by the Swiss Text Academy. Two episodes are released monthly, on Spotify ( https://open.spotify.com/show/4mSsEJuaShBuanBfBjoAeM?si=01b4363426db4d28) , Youtube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4InE9vz-QptAjyy0QXyk6lWFKXreWEh2&feature=shared and other podcast platforms.
