Paulo Quaresma, a researcher and professor at the University of Évora, shares potential applications of artificial intelligence technologies in FCCN Unit services.
This article aims to reflect on how the application of artificial intelligence methodologies can enhance and increase the services provided to the scientific community by FCCN, a unit of FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology.
These reflections are based, on the one hand, on my knowledge of the FCCN, having held its portfolio as a Member of the FCT Board of Directors during 2021 and, on the other hand, on my 25 years as a researcher in the field of artificial intelligence.
Let's start by characterizing FCCN's areas of activity. To do so, consult its website (http://www.fccn.pt) allows us to identify a broad set of services provided to the scientific community. While some of these services already incorporate artificial intelligence components, it is expected that, in the short and medium term, they may be expanded by incorporating high-value-added components. Let's look at some possibilities.
- Arquivo.pt
The historical archive of .pt domain web pages is, in itself, a collection of immense value and a foundation for scientific research, particularly in the areas of natural language processing and computational linguistics. However, with the increasing availability of open-access tools for processing Portuguese language texts, "Arquivo.pt" may eventually make available not only the archive itself but also services related to it. For example, consider the potential interest in automatically identifying entities (people, organizations, and places) mentioned in publications in certain domains (e.g., newspapers). online) in a given period of time; or, in addition, what events the people in question participated in and with whom they interacted. Or, further, how the lexicon and syntax used in the publications online has been undergoing changes over time?
- B-on: knowledge library
b-on integrates a vast set of scientific publications from leading international publishers and allows for integrated searches within these collections. However, it is possible to develop and integrate advanced Natural Language Processing tools to incorporate a set of additional features into the article collection search module. Language models are currently available, both for English and multilingual, which can be used in searches, allowing for the retrieval of scientific articles that are semantically closest to the search results. It is also possible to build a model of each b-on user, along with their scientific interests, and send notifications whenever an article related to their interests is added to any of the b-on collections.
- Open Science
Portugal joined the plan S in 2021, with the aim of adopting the principles of Open Science, both in the publication of scientific articles and in the creation of data repositories. To this end, the FCT has been incorporating measures into its public notices for the full adoption of Plan S this year. However, monitoring and evaluating the procedures associated with Open Science is not simple, given the large volume of data involved (annual production of thousands of articles and data collections). The use of AI and Data Science methodologies could allow for the automatic extraction of relevant data and validation of its publication format, eliminating the need for complex and repetitive manual procedures.
- Advanced Computing
This is the item in which the relevance of artificial intelligence for its execution and enhancement is most immediately evident: automatic learning and, specifically, deep learning (“deep learning”) require increasingly powerful and complex computing resources. The FCCN/FCT manages the RNCA – National Advanced Computing Network, which consists of several nodes nationwide and integrates structures designed for high-performance processing, including deep neural networks. A huge increase in existing computing capacity is expected in the short and medium term.
- Services to researchers
The FCCN offers a wide range of services to researchers, from content production services (educast), teaching and training platforms (NAU), video conferencing systems (colibri), and event broadcasting (videocast), to platforms supporting the management of scientific activities (ciencia id, ciência vitae, and PTCRIS). In this area, artificial intelligence could also help raise the level of services provided to the scientific community. Some examples: the teaching and training platform could benefit from incorporating trainee models, representing their mental state (e.g., goals and beliefs), to enable interaction and a personalized learning process; the CV management platform could, through natural language processing tools, identify additional relevant information from external sources and propose its inclusion in the corresponding CVs.
- Infrastructure: RCTS, networks
This is a fundamental component of FCCN's activities and supports the activities of the entire scientific community. It's an area that already integrates AI components, such as intrusion and attack detection and anomaly diagnosis. With the growing importance of cybersecurity, AI will play an increasingly important role in this field.
In conclusion, based on the analysis carried out, as well as thanks to current developments in the field of AI, it is clear that this will be an inevitable and successful crossover, allowing FCCN to increase the quality of the services it already provides to the scientific community.
