Delivered work, partnerships and analysis.
What we have delivered and with whom, and the analysis and research we do ourselves. Each item says plainly what it is and where it stands.
Delivered and partnerships
Cyprus AI ecosystem report (GAIA 2025)
A national map of the companies, start-ups and research organisations building AI in Cyprus, commissioned by the Office of the Chief Scientist.
Commissioned by
The Cyprus Mail describes the report as the first comprehensive survey across 300 stakeholders, mapping 116 companies, start-ups and research organisations that build AI solutions and products in Cyprus. It adapts two well-known strategy tools, the Magic Quadrant and the Horizon 3 model, to benchmark a national ecosystem. It was commissioned by the Office of the Chief Scientist and supported by AIA Lab. The method and analysis are by Sotiris Makrygiannis.
“Cyprus does not have an ideas problem.”
Demetris Skourides, Chief Scientist of the Republic of Cyprus, in an interview with the Cyprus Mail, 30 March 2026
“…the challenge for any innovation ecosystem, and Cyprus is no exception, is the transition from vision to execution at scale.”
Demetris Skourides, in the same Cyprus Mail interview
The report belongs to the commissioning office. This page describes it and links to public material only; it is not available from AIA Labs. The logo identifies the commissioner and does not imply that the Chief Scientist endorses AIA Labs.
In the press and online
- 30 Mar 2026Chief scientist, Demetris Skourides, on the GAIA report and the future of Cyprus’ AI economy (Cyprus Mail, Cyprus 4.0). An interview with the Chief Scientist on the report’s findings and what they mean for the country’s AI economy.
- 30 Mar 2026LinkedIn post by Neofytos Zacharia sharing the interview.
- 18 Sep 2026Σφυρηλατώντας την 6η Εποχή του Ανθρώπου (Substack, in Greek). How the GAIA method came about: two corporate strategy frameworks adapted to map a whole national ecosystem, and what the maps show about start-ups stuck in the “pilot trap”.
- 18 Sep 2026The 6th Age of Man and the GAIA method (LinkedIn post, in Greek). The short version: Cyprus has excellent start-ups, but they need the commercial architecture, such as IP strategy, product ownership and enterprise sales, to scale.
- 24 Sep 2025Call for action: Cyprus tech ecosystem (LinkedIn post). An open call to companies in AI, blockchain, IoT, cloud and analytics to take part in the national ecosystem survey; 50 companies had already completed it.
Company profiles
Separately from the report, AIA Labs prepares independent profiles of individual companies in the Cyprus AI ecosystem, from public information. A sample profile is available on request.
Philotimo
AI and technology for good, built with partners.
Philotimo (φιλότιμο) is a Greek word with no single English equivalent: honour, generosity, responsibility, and the will to do the right thing for others without expecting a reward. It is the spirit behind the initiative, and the reason AIA Labs and Sotiris do this work.
Project Philotimo brings researchers, artists and technologists together around one idea: use AI and technology to do good. It grew out of AFR?D!, the child-protection research Sotiris started in 2020, and it continues that mission with creative and research partners such as SNX.
Press releases
- SNX joins Philotimo: his songs, in 20 languages, for social good (announcement, draft dated 16 October 2026)
- How Philotimo began: a call to artists working with AI (17 May 2024)
- Project Aphrodite: AI for safety, with student ambassadors (26 February 2025)
Protecting children from sextortion
AFR?D! (a play on Aphrodite, born in Cyprus, and “afraid”) is the research initiative behind our AI-for-good work on sextortion.
Started in Cyprus in 2020 by Sotiris Makrygiannis, AFR?D! asked how technology could protect children and young people from online blackmail, cyberbullying and the non-consensual sharing of images. Support for victims is scattered across NGOs, specialist police units and therapists, who rarely coordinate. The work looks at how AI and blockchain could help them act together, with privacy and ethics built in.
The story, by Sotiris (22 September 2026), is in Greek: AFR?D! Η ιστορία ενός εγχειρήματος που αρνήθηκε να πεθάνει.
- Dec 2023Paper on arXiv with Prof. Alex Norta: Designing Artificial Intelligence Equipped Social Decentralized Autonomous Organizations for Tackling Sextortion Cases. Read on arXiv
- Jul 2025A follow-up paper by an international team, Leveraging Blockchain for Ethical AI: Mitigating Digital Threats and Strengthening Societal Resilience, published in Future Internet, cites the 2023 paper. Read the preprint
LinkedIn posts: the story of AFR?D! and what came next · the first AI-for-good draft, with Prof. Norta and colleagues at the University of Seville.
The research is conceptual: it proposes a framework and does not claim a deployed, validated system.
SNX.live: songs in 20 languages
SNX, an artist, has joined the Philotimo initiative. His contribution is his songs, translated into 20 languages so the words travel as far as the music.
SNX.live is live now: ten songs, each with its own page in every language. It was built and translated with AIA Labs. The songs and lyrics remain SNX’s.
Why we do this: Philotimo is about doing the right thing for others. When an artist chooses to give his work to a cause, we want to help it reach as many people as it can, in their own language.
Pontus-X (Gaia-X)
AIA Labs joined the Pontus-X ecosystem, the largest publicly available Gaia-X Lighthouse Data Space, to provide strategic services that help governments and large organisations make use of sovereign data infrastructure.
Analysis and research
Analysis and reports
Independent analysis by AIA Labs on technology, policy and security questions that matter to governments and large organisations, built from public sources.
Siemens S7 controllers and Cyprus’s critical infrastructure
20 August 2026
A threat-intelligence report on the US advisory AA26-231A, which describes an active campaign against internet-exposed Siemens S7 industrial controllers, including at US water and wastewater utilities. The report separates what is confirmed from what is plausible, explains why this class of risk matters for an island with a small number of automated power and water facilities, and sets out its own limitations. Cyprus is not named in the advisory, and the report does not claim that Cypriot systems are affected.
Read the article on Substack (in Greek) · The CISA advisory · The report is available on request.
The Impact of GPU Export Controls on European Countries
Announced 24 June 2025 · executive brief dated March 2025
AIA Labs’ paper on how semiconductor trade restrictions affect Europe’s AI ambitions and digital sovereignty. The executive brief covers the US export controls on advanced AI chips announced in January 2025. It describes how the rules divide EU member states into those with unrestricted access (10) and those with import caps (17), what that means for AI compute and innovation across the EU, the options open to the EU, and the short-, mid- and long-term implications.
The US Commerce Department announced on 13 May 2025 that it would rescind this rule. The brief describes the January 2025 rule as announced and has not been updated.
Read the public announcement (24 June 2025) · The paper is available on request.
Research
Our research on protecting children from sextortion, including the 2023 paper on arXiv, is described under AFR?D!.
Want to join or work with us?
If you would like to explore a partnership, we would be glad to hear from you. Partners are listed here once they have agreed to be named.