City Region Explores Shared AI Computing With NVIDIA
The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has started work with the Italian software company K2K and the chipmaker NVIDIA to find out whether a shared, secure regional computing facility makes sense for the area. The idea is that public services, researchers and businesses could draw on this capacity when they need it to analyse real-world problems and design solutions using artificial intelligence.
What is being studied
The assessment will look at whether sharing access to computing power could cut duplication, give the region more local control and keep more of the economic value of AI close to home. It will also weigh demand, data security, local skills, energy use and affordable ways to pay for and deliver such a facility.
K2K's IKM technology, built with NVIDIA Cosmos and the NVIDIA VSS Blueprint, will be explored as a way to turn existing operational information into real-time insights. The Combined Authority names traffic management and recycling as examples of city services that could benefit. NVIDIA itself presented the Liverpool work alongside other European city projects, saying K2K is exploring AI facilities for urban planning and public services, with mobility and safety uses in testing.
A careful, phased approach
The first phase is expected to begin in late October. It will bring together the region's six local authorities and involve universities, public service partners and industry. The phase will end with an assessment of need, governance, skills, funding and delivery options, and a recommendation on whether to go further. Any later proposal would need formal approval, public procurement and clear evidence of public value.
Tiffany St James, the Combined Authority's Chief AI Officer and the UK's first regional chief AI officer, said the partnership will help the region understand how accelerated computing could support a secure regional AI centre. She stressed that governance and public value come first, and that any proposal must be secure, affordable and accountable.
The project builds on the region's existing AI for Good work, including its Community Charter on Data and AI and its Civic Data Cooperative. NVIDIA representatives are due to attend the city region's third AI Summit on 27 October.
Photo: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority