Poznan ready for the AI ​​Gigafactory of Central and Eastern Europe

Poznan is consistently building its position as one of the cities best prepared for the development of artificial intelligence in Poland and the region. It boasts excellent research and development facilities, excellent universities educating qualified staff, companies prepared for new technologies, and modern technological infrastructure.

– We have everything necessary to develop solutions based on artificial intelligence, emphasizes Jacek Jaśkowiak, Mayor of Poznan. As a city, we work closely with Poznań’s universities and technology partners. We test practical applications of AI in administration and urban environments daily. We also remember that the development of artificial intelligence is not based solely on computing power. Equally important are trust, data sovereignty, high cybersecurity, and clear legal and ethical standards. These are precisely the elements that distinguish Poznan from other centers in the country and the region.

A cohesive ecosystem: science, infrastructure, and competencies

Poznan’s AI development model is based on close cooperation between the local government, universities, and technology partners. Academic centers in the capital of Greater Poland, such as Poznan University of Technology and Adam Mickiewicz University, provide human resources and research resources, educating specialists and conducting interdisciplinary projects.

The Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center and Beyond.pl provide high-performance computing and networking infrastructure, as well as expertise in HPC (processing massive datasets) and other emerging technologies. Artificial intelligence factories are already operating in the capital of Greater Poland: the scientific PIAST AI from PCSS, part of the nationwide PIONIER network, and the private one from Beyond.pl.

The city serves as a coordinator and initiator of activities, including through Poznan CityLab, where practical AI applications in administration and urban spaces are tested, including digital twin city projects.

PLASMA (Polish Language Audio Speech Modeling Architecture)

– As part of the collaboration between the Center for Artificial Intelligence and the Beyond.pl AI Factory, we have created the first Polish voice model that enables text-free conversation, says Prof. Krzysztof Jassem, Director of CSI UAM. To achieve this, we have collected the largest collection of Polish recordings to date on Beyond digital media. Based on this, we trained a model that understands Polish speech, breaking it down into so-called voice tokens. It allows us to understand the speech directly, rather than through separate stages (speech recognition and text processing). The model can recognize the gender of the interlocutor, even if it is not evident from the content of the utterance, and also estimate their age – you can tailor your response, for example, in the way we conduct dialogue. The results of our research represent an important step towards the next technological breakthrough in artificial intelligence – language models based on speech, not text.

Beyond.pl’s AI Factory as the Foundation of the Gigafactory

A special place in this ecosystem belongs to the AI ​​Factory developed by Beyond.pl – the first such private venture in Central and Eastern Europe. The project, implemented at a modern data center campus in Poznan, provides access to high-performance computing power for artificial intelligence in a service model, while maintaining technological sovereignty, meaning full control over data and compliance with local and European regulations.

Beyond.pl’s AI Factory was designed for projects requiring large-scale computing, high power density, and the highest security standards. The infrastructure enables the development and implementation of advanced AI models by the public sector, science, and business, without the need to invest in building their own IT resources.

On the other hand, PSNC plays a key role. As the operator of the national research infrastructure node, it brings to the project the experience gained from numerous national and European initiatives. It ensures secure data exchange within scientific networks.

Trust and Security as a Condition for Development

The scale of investment, energy availability, advanced connectivity, and Poznan’s location between key European markets make the integrated potential of PSNC and Beyond.pl a natural foundation for the AI ​​Gigafactory project. It allows for faster, cheaper implementation without the need to build infrastructure from scratch.

The scientific, infrastructural, and business already enables the utilization of the computing power of the future AI Gigafactory – once the Poznan is chosen as a desired location.

The city not only possesses the appropriate technological resources but also a coherent vision and ensures practical cooperation between key partners. This is precisely why Poznan is perceived as a leading place for the development of large-scale AI infrastructure in Poland and the CEE region.