The Flemish government has established the Knowledge Center Data & Society (Kenniscentrum Data & Maatschappij). It focuses on the interplay between data, artificial intelligence and society. The Center will enable socially responsible, ethical and legally appropriate implementations of AI in Flanders. It comprises three existing research centers: imec-SMIT (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), imec-MICT (Ghent University) and the Center for IT & IP Law (KU Leuven). The Flemish Department on Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI) funds the initiative.
The Center aims to enable Flemish companies, policymakers, regulators and citizens to achieve the greatest social and/or economic benefits of AI. For this it will bring together diverse stakeholder representative organisations and facilitate the creation of tools, advice and recommendations. The Center will support umbrella organisations in the field by offering them state of the art knowledge, guidelines or teach the teacher programs, so that knowledge trickles down via their existing channels in a cooperative way.
It fits within the 3rd aspect of the Flemish policy plan for AI, therefore a steering committee was founded that consists of high-ranking people from the research and business world. They will steer the implementation of the plan in the right direction. Prof. Dr. Ir. Hugo Thienpont seats in the committee.