In February 2020, the European Commission has released the White paper on Artificial Intelligence “A European approach to excellence and trust”, in which the basic principles and tasks for building the AI ecosystem of trust and excellence in the European Union are formulated. Given the success of the AI-based projects in Eurasia (especially Belarusian and Ukrainian), it is important that this region can become part of the global AI ecosystem. What should be done by the Eurasian governments, leaders of the IT industry, and EU officials? These issues were discussed on StrategEast Live session “Eurasia in European AI Ecosystem”.
Gary Fowler, CEO, President, and Co-founder, GSD Venture Studios looks at AI prospects in Eurasia with great enthusiasm: “AI is the new electricity. I believe we need less talk and more action. Because AI will change all areas of life.” According to Mr. Fowler, the countries of Eurasia – Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and others – are the source of a large number of talents. Ukraine or Belarus need to build a global decentralized team to solve any problems in the field of AI. Today, 92% of companies in the world go through digital transformations, which means there is enough work for everyone. Mr. Fowler suggested Eurasian developers in the field of AI be inspired by the motto “work together, stay positive”.
According to Oles Petriv, CTO, Reface.AI, although in general the AI industry in Ukraine is doing well, industry leaders do not see the effective steps taken by the local government to help the development of the Ukrainian data science community. According to Mr. Petriv, European Union might become a promising partner for the Ukrainian technical community, so that the talk about the creation of “Silicon Valley of Artificial Intelligence” in Ukraine would be confirmed by investments and educational opportunities.
Nino Enukidze, Rector, Business and Technology University, Georgia is confident that the introduction of AI will bring dividends to the region only with the right regulatory approach. Answering a question by the panel’s moderator, Anatoly Motkin, President of StrategEast of whether AI can bring European values such as human dignity, pluralism, inclusion, nondiscrimination and protection of privacy and personal data to Eurasia, Ms. Enukidze noted that one of the tasks of the IT community is to build awareness about these features. It is widely believed that AI brings with it a number of ethical issues, but few people know what opportunities AI brings with it for positive social change. In order for these changes to take place, balanced legislation is needed that provides for the principle of “provide as much freedom as possible.” The government should take care not only of protecting citizens, but also of economic development, and AI projects can help accelerate such development.
