The Government of Serbia has adopted the Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2020-2025 aiming to use artificial intelligence (AI) for the purpose of economic growth, employment, job development of the future and a better quality of life.
By adopting and implementing this strategy, the Republic of Serbia will be positioned as the leader of the AI development region, since in the region of Southeastern Europe no country has published a strategy for the AI.
As announced in the Official Gazette on December 31, the implementation of the Strategy’s measures should ensure that artificial intelligence in the Republic of Serbia is developed and implemented in a safe manner.
By 2019, for the fifth consecutive year, the Republic of Serbia has seen an increase in ICT services exports of over 20% annually. As economic growth, digitalization and education are key priorities of the government of the Republic of Serbia, AI is one of the areas that has the greatest potential to contribute to these priorities.
Artificial Intelligence refers to systems that display reasonable, intelligent, behavior based on an analysis of their environment and make decisions – with a degree of autonomy – to achieve specific goals. Artificial intelligence systems can be software-only and operate in the virtual world (for example, virtual assistants, photo analysis software, Internet browsers, speech and face recognition systems) or be embedded in hardware devices (e.g. advanced robots, autonomous vehicles, drones, etc).
According to the Artificial Intelligence Readiness Index prepared by Oxford Insights in collaboration with the International Development Research Center (IDRC), the Republic of Serbia is ranked 58th out of 194 countries in 2019.
In terms of the countries in the region, the Republic of Slovenia (38th) is the most ranked according to the Index, and the Republic of Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania are also ahead of the Republic of Serbia. Education is a key factor for the development of AI in the Republic of Serbia.
Historically, the Republic of Serbia has good education in technical and natural sciences which is significant for the AI, the Strategy estimates. Despite significant advances in information technology learning in primary and secondary schools, both in general and vocational subjects, artificial intelligence topics are not yet significantly represented.
As stated, artificial intelligence topics are represented in the study programs in different ways and to a different extent, but it is not standardized what should be learned from artificial intelligence in computer science, computer engineering and such programs, such as in large measures standardized what, for example, needs to be learned about operating systems, compilers, relational databases and similar. Also, there is a modest connection between technical faculties with AI development companies, and almost minimal connection of other faculties (eg in agriculture, medicine, etc.) with AI development companies.
As for the part of the IT sector or the startup ecosystem that deals with artificial intelligence, there is no research that provides accurate data on the number of companies and their economic indicators, the authors of the Strategy estimate. Based on consultations with the private sector involved in the development and deployment of artificial intelligence products, we conclude that these are predominantly small or medium-sized companies most often focused on a narrow range of products and mainly on the application of existing technologies under AI. On the other hand, AI is also present in the projects of larger IT companies, but the share of such projects in business is usually not large.
The Strategy says that the impression of business representatives is that one of the reasons is that local AI companies are oriented towards foreign markets. In terms of industry connectivity with other sectors, it is recognized that connectivity with universities is also modest, although there are examples of good practice. This applies to both technical and natural-mathematical faculties, where the need for closer co-operation and cooperation is more evident, but also to other faculties, especially in the fields of medicine and agriculture and forestry, which could enable multidisciplinary design of innovative solutions.
Regarding the policy generally applicable to SMEs, a new strategic document for SMEs will be drafted after 2020, recognizing the importance of digital transformation, including the use of artificial intelligence as one of the elements that has great impact and development potential for SMEs.
It was emphasized that there was a need to establish more regimes of limited regulatory market (sEndbox) in order to stimulate innovation.
Sendbox is a special regulatory regime that allows companies to test, in accordance with an approved plan and under the supervision of a competent authority, innovative solutions or business models on a limited number of users.
In the Republic of Serbia, there is one such example, applied in the financial sector, developed by the National Bank of Serbia. The Law on Payment Services has established an appropriate legal basis (with the exception of the limited network) for the innovative payment service testing companies they are considering introducing.
Also, the strategy’s proposal is for the state to adapt public procurement rules to use innovative artificial intelligence solutions to improve efficiency. The legal framework regarding data ownership was assessed as insufficient, writes Nova Ekonomija.
