Testing & Experimentation Facilities: AI Testbeds, Living Labs or Both?

In the current wave of AI innovation, the European Commission has defined Testing and Experimentation Facilities to be established to facilitate AI innovation in the context of new legislation such as the AI act. Within this paper, we investigate the CitCom.ai TEF in an attempt to link these TEFs to longer existing concepts such as testbeds, Living Labs and Regulatory Sandboxes. Our analysis reveals 7 service categories that can be linked to these three innovation concepts. In the 26 analysed experiments, there was a clear dominance of services linked to the concept of AI testbeds. In second place came three service categories that can be attributed to Living Labs. Remarkably, the service category linked to AI regulatory sandboxes appeared to be the least popular. This reflects the 'in development' status of this concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]