Milestone partners with DCAI to boost compliant AI for smart cities
Milestone Systems has announced a collaboration with DCAI to further the development and deployment of responsible AI models in Europe. The partnership leverages DCAI's Gefion supercomputer for high-performance AI tasks, aiming to ensure European compliance and sovereignty in AI initiatives for traffic and smart city applications.
European AI infrastructure
Milestone is now utilising the Gefion cloud platform based in the EU to deploy and fine-tune its Vision Language Model (VLM). The arrangement guarantees adherence to the European Union's strict data protection and regulatory requirements, including the AI Act and GDPR. The collaboration is positioned to support the EU AI Factory strategy by providing a secure and compliant technological foundation for advanced video analytics.
Video intelligence focus
The partnership centres around Milestone's AI Vision Language Model, developed jointly with NVIDIA. The VLM is designed to automate the conversion of video footage into detailed written outputs, such as reports, summaries, and real-time alerts. Its main applications target the optimisation of traffic management and broader smart city functions across European cities, ports, airports, and other urban areas. The system supports development of AI agents tailored for analytics tasks aligned with the public sector's requirements.
Sovereign data compliance
Running the VLM on DCAI's EU-based Gefion infrastructure is intended to assure that all data, training, and deployment steps remain within European jurisdiction. This full data sovereignty is increasingly emphasised by policymakers and regulators across Europe. The Hafnia Data Library, which contains ethically sourced datasets, will be integrated into the system to further support compliance and transparency in AI development.
Supporting digital independence
DCAI's platform is set up to provide scalable access to advanced AI computational resources for a range of European customers, including developers, governments, and municipalities. This enables local entities to build, train, and deploy AI models that meet European privacy and ethical standards.
"Our mission at DCAI is to provide the best AI infrastructure that does not compromise on data sovereignty, and we are proud to see companies building on top of that foundation to advance responsible AI initiatives. Our work with Milestone and NVIDIA helps position Europe at the forefront of responsible AI innovation, setting new benchmarks for sovereign AI infrastructure," said Dr. Nadia Carlsten, CEO, DCAI.
Collaborative ecosystem
The collaboration also involves NVIDIA's hardware and software technologies, which support the performance of the Vision Language Model. Milestone emphasises that the combination of data resources, AI model capability, and secure supercomputing infrastructure will allow stakeholders to create compliant, effective AI solutions specifically tailored for the European market.
"This collaboration is a powerful step toward ensuring that Europe's AI future is built on trust, transparency, and technological sovereignty. By combining Hafnia's vast, ethically sourced data library and VLM capabilities with DCAI's secure cloud and NVIDIA's AI leadership, we're creating a uniquely European AI ecosystem that supports municipalities, governments, and researchers in building compliant, high-impact AI solutions," said Thomas Jensen, CEO, Milestone Systems.
"The fine-tuned Milestone Vision Language Model represents a leap forward in video understanding and contextual AI for smart cities and traffic management. Running it on Gefion's EU-based cloud ensures that data, training, and deployment all remain under European control, a vital step in supporting the EU's vision for ethical, secure, and sovereign AI," said Andrew Burnett, Interim CTO, Milestone Systems.
