Glossary: AI and Switzerland
This glossary explains all technical terms and abbreviations used in the AI and Switzerland subject area.
Glossary
| Term | Explanation |
|---|---|
| AGI | Artificial General Intelligence — an AI system capable of performing any intellectual task at human level. Does not yet exist. |
| AHV | Old-age and survivors' insurance — Switzerland's mandatory state pension scheme (1st pillar). Acutely threatened by AI-related job losses. |
| ALV | Unemployment insurance — social insurance that protects employees in case of unemployment. |
| BFS | Federal Statistical Office — produces Switzerland's demographic, economic, and social statistics. |
| BGE | Universal basic income — regular government payment to all citizens without conditions. |
| BIP | Gross domestic product — total value of all goods and services produced in a country within a year. |
| BSV | Federal Social Insurance Office — responsible for AHV, IV, and other social insurance schemes. |
| Bürgerdividende | Citizen dividend — proposed direct participation of the population in AI-driven productivity gains, e.g. as an annual distribution. |
| BVG | Federal Act on Occupational Retirement, Survivors' and Disability Pension Plans — 2nd pillar (pension fund); operates through employer contributions. |
| CO2 | Carbon dioxide — greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. Relevant for AI data centres and their energy consumption. |
| CSCS | Swiss National Supercomputing Centre — in Lugano (operates the «Alps» supercomputer, among others). |
| Deepfake | AI-generated image, audio, or video forgeries that appear deceptively real. Danger to democracy and trust. |
| DLT | Distributed Ledger Technology — distributed record-keeping (e.g. blockchain). Switzerland is a centre with its «Crypto Valley». |
| DSG | Federal Act on Data Protection — revised and in force since 1 September 2023. Regulates the handling of personal data in Switzerland. |
| DSGVO | General Data Protection Regulation — EU framework for the protection of personal data. Also applies indirectly to Swiss companies with EU customers. |
| EDÖB | Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner — supervisory authority for data protection in Switzerland. |
| EO | Income Compensation Scheme — salary replacement during military service, maternity, and paternity leave. |
| EPFL | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne — leading in AI research. |
| ETH | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich — one of the world's leading technical universities. |
| EU AI Act | European Union Regulation on Artificial Intelligence — the world's first comprehensive AI regulation (in force since 2024). |
| EZB | European Central Bank — central bank of the eurozone. Relevant for monetary and financial policy in the AI era. |
| FINMA | Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority — regulates banks, insurance companies, and financial market infrastructures. |
| Fiskalische Lücke | Fiscal gap — shortfall in social insurance when AI-related salary contributions decrease. Estimated at up to CHF 116 billion. |
| GPT | Generative Pre-trained Transformer — class of large language models (LLMs) by OpenAI (GPT-3, GPT-4 etc.). |
| GPU | Graphics Processing Unit — used for AI training because it enables massively parallel computations. |
| IDSIA | Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale — AI research institute in Lugano (USI/SUPSI). Birthplace of the LSTM network. |
| IEA | International Energy Agency — produces forecasts on energy consumption (including data centres). |
| ITER | International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor — the world's largest nuclear fusion experiment (southern France). Could provide unlimited clean energy. |
| IV | Disability insurance — social insurance for people with health-related incapacity to work. |
| IWF | International Monetary Fund — international organisation for economic and financial stability. |
| KI | Artificial intelligence — umbrella term for computer systems that perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence. |
| KMU | Small and medium-sized enterprises — businesses with fewer than 250 employees. |
| KOF | KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich — produces economic forecasts and business cycle barometers. |
| LAWS | Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems — lethal autonomous weapon systems that attack without human control. Internationally controversial. |
| LLM | Large Language Model — AI system trained on vast amounts of text (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude). |
| LSTM | Long Short-Term Memory — neural network developed in 1997 at IDSIA. Foundation for speech recognition, machine translation, and ChatGPT. |
| Machine Learning | Machine learning — subfield of AI in which algorithms learn from data without being explicitly programmed. |
| ML | Machine Learning — machine learning; subfield of AI. |
| NLP | Natural Language Processing — subfield of AI that analyses and generates natural language. |
| SNB | Swiss National Bank — Switzerland's central bank. |
| SPHN | Swiss Personalized Health Network — national initiative for using health data for personalised medicine. |
| Transfer Learning | Transfer learning — method in which a pre-trained AI model is adapted for new tasks, saving training time and data. |
List of Abbreviations
| Abbreviation | Meaning |
|---|---|
| AGI | Artificial General Intelligence |
| AHV | Old-age and survivors' insurance |
| ALV | Unemployment insurance |
| BFS | Federal Statistical Office |
| BGE | Universal basic income |
| BIP | Gross domestic product |
| BSV | Federal Social Insurance Office |
| BVG | Federal Act on Occupational Retirement, Survivors' and Disability Pension Plans |
| CO2 | Carbon dioxide |
| CSCS | Swiss National Supercomputing Centre |
| DLT | Distributed Ledger Technology |
| DSG | Federal Act on Data Protection |
| DSGVO | General Data Protection Regulation |
| EDÖB | Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner |
| EO | Income Compensation Scheme |
| EPFL | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne |
| ETH | Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich |
| EU AI Act | European Union Regulation on Artificial Intelligence |
| EZB | European Central Bank |
| FINMA | Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority |
| GPT | Generative Pre-trained Transformer |
| GPU | Graphics Processing Unit |
| IDSIA | Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale |
| IEA | International Energy Agency |
| ITER | International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor |
| IV | Disability insurance |
| IWF | International Monetary Fund |
| KI | Artificial intelligence |
| KMU | Small and medium-sized enterprises |
| KOF | KOF Swiss Economic Institute at ETH Zurich |
| LAWS | Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems |
| LLM | Large Language Model |
| LSTM | Long Short-Term Memory |
| ML | Machine Learning |
| NLP | Natural Language Processing |
| SNB | Swiss National Bank |
| SPHN | Swiss Personalized Health Network |
As of March 2026. All information is based on publicly available sources.