SWITZERLAND

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

As part of the 2018 Digital Switzerland Strategy, a working group within the federal administration on the topic of AI was set up. It is tasked with exchanging knowledge and opinions, but also to coordinate Switzerland’s position internationally. The 2019 white paper, ‘Recommendations for an AI Strategy in Switzerland’, drafted by the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences’ (SATW) topical platform on AI, addresses five major areas: ensuring data safety and security, establishing a verification body, increasing human trust, addressing the role of AI in higher education, and enabling AI for small and medium sized enterprises. SATW also stresses that Switzerland should develop a national AI strategy. The Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) works on machine learning image recognition for radar data. Through the Science and Technology (S+T) center and the Technology Foresight research programme this federal department also explores the implications of emerging technologies on military matters through conferences, workshops, and publications. Switzerland participates in the meetings of the UN CCW GGE on LAWS. Together with Belgium, it submitted a position paper in 2017. The Federal Council has rejected a ban on LAWS.

BLOCKCHAIN

The Federal Council aims to create legal certainty when it comes to distributed ledger technology (DLT) and focuses on removing barriers for application, while minimising abuse of the technology. To this end, it published a report on the ‘Legal framework for blockchain and DLT in the financial sector’ in 2018. A federal act on DLT is under discussion. At the end of 2019, the council published a report on central bank digital currency (CBDC), meaning money that the central bank can create in digital form and make available to the general public. The report concludes that the digital currency would bring no additional benefits, but would create additional risks to monetary policy and financial security.

The country’s central bank is co-operating with other central banks on assessing the potential implications of CBDCs.

INTERNET OF THINGS

The 2018 Digital Switzerland strategy of the Federal Council supports developments in the area of smart cities. In particular, the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy, and Communications (DETEC) was tasked to draft a plan for the development of smart cities, villages, and regions. The initiative Smart Switzerland collects examples of smart cities’ transformations in Zurich, Basel, and Winterthur among others. The Digital Switzerland strategy also calls for smarter energy supply and energy production.

QUANTUM COMPUTING

Switzerland describes itself as ‘well positioned in the field of quantum technology’. Switzerland supports research and development activities in quantum computing through the Swiss National Science Foundation and the National Centre of Competence in Research’s (NCCR) Quantum Science and Technology (QSIT) initiative. The goals of the NCCR QSIT ‘range from present and future engineering applications, such as quantum cryptography and quantum computation, to the investigation of new paradigms for fundamental physics such as topological states of matter’. Groups participating in the NCCR QSIT are located at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ), the Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), the University of Basel, the University of Geneva, the University of Bern, the University of Italian-speaking Switzerland, and the IBM research laboratory in Zurich.

ROBOTICS

Switzerland supports research and development at the intersection of robotics and the defence, military, and humanitarian sectors. The Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS) has launched a research programme called, ‘Advanced Robotic Capabilities for Hazardous Environments’ (ARCHE) in order to assess the practical suitability of robots in disaster relief. ARCHE was launched in 2017 by the Swiss Drone and Robotics Centre (SRDZ) of the DDPS. Examples of applications include: (a) detecting nuclear radiation and measuring the surrounding area using mini drones: (b) the remote operation of a partly-automated 12-ton excavator; and (c) ‘smart’ tools to support emergency responders in caring for and rescuing buried victims. In addition, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) campaign ‘Switzerland – home of drones’ aims to promote Swiss innovation and technology and Swiss companies abroad, as well as raise Swiss awareness of specialist companies and start-ups outside of Switzerland.