Learn more about IDnow’s latest collaborative project, ACHILLES, which sets out to revolutionize the development and use of AI throughout Europe.
In a world where artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly integrated into our daily lives, the importance of having access to transparent, robust and sustainable AI increases.
Inspired by the legend of the mythological warrior, the ACHILLES project aims to tackle the traditional limitations and weaknesses of AI, which are typically considered to be efficiency and trust.
With funding of over €8 million from Horizon Europe, and collaboration between 16 partners including IDnow, ACHILLES will run for a four year period (2024-2028) and focus on four areas:
People: Promoting ethical, transparent and explainable AI.
Data: Reducing the use of real data through the use of synthetic alternatives.
AI models: Optimizing efficiency and guaranteeing fairness.
Deployment: Ensuring sustainable, regulatory-compliant implementation.
With ACHILLES, we want to put people at the heart of AI innovation. Our aim is to ensure that every technology not only performs well, but is also transparent and ethical, to inspire trust in the long term.
André Carreiro, Project Coordinator and Researcher at Fraunhofer AICOS (Portugal).
The 6 objectives of the ACHILLES project.
- Identify ethical and legal frameworks in order to design AI systems that are based on human values.
- Create frameworks to guarantee high quality, diverse and representative data for AI use.
- Protect consumer privacy when using data and models in machine learning.
- Optimize AI model training and deployment processes to reduce energy and IT costs.
- Enable the development of robust and transparent algorithms.
- Offer researchers and developers an integrated development environment based on machine learning to facilitate efficient, regulatory-compliant and trustworthy AI.
What sectors is ACHILLES focused on?
The ACHILLES project will focus on creating multiple use cases across various industries, including healthcare by optimizing models to provide faster and more reliable diagnostics, and identity verification by developing more secure, privacy-friendly solutions. By ensuring compliance with regulations, ACHILLES will also offer use cases as far and wide as content creation and pharmaceutical development.
Plus, by aligning with the ethical standards of the European Union, ACHILLES demonstrates that innovation and responsibility can, in fact, coexist to create trusted AI. The ACHILLES project is split into three major milestones.
Year 1 (2024-2025): Define use cases and specifications, start of technical developments.
Year 2 (2025-2026): Continue technical developments, assessment of project use cases.
Years 3 and 4 (2026-2028): Implement and evaluate the efficacy of ACHILLES solutions on project use cases.
IDnow’s role in the ACHILLES project.
As a leader in the European identity verification market, IDnow’s chief role in the project is to provide identity verification expertise and work to maximize the efficiency of datasets that comply with privacy standards, including GDPR. This includes:
- Creating synthetic data that is representative of real data.
- Optimizing data annotation to minimize human resources and guarantee reliable results.
- Renewing datasets without affecting model performance.
Throughout the project IDnow will be evaluating ACHILLES innovations on real-life use cases linked to identity verification. These tests will enable us to improve the robustness of our algorithms and propose more reliable, secure and privacy-friendly solutions.
Thanks to the ACHILLES project, we hope not only to improve the quality and robustness of our algorithms, but also to reduce dependence on real data. This represents a major step toward more sustainable and regulatory-compliant AI.
Montaser Awal, Director of Research at IDnow.
The ACHILLES project marks a decisive step in the development of sustainable, human-centered AI. With its multidisciplinary approach and rigorous framework, it promises to lay the foundations for a more transparent and safer artificial intelligence that meets the needs of tomorrow. Stay tuned: the first results will be available in 2026!
Find out more about our other research projects, including Soteria, which investigated the feasibility of balancing digital security with user privacy.
By
Mallaury Marie
Content Manager at IDnow
Connect with Mallaury on LinkedIn
