Only five regions have included priority objectives related to artificial intelligence in their smart specialisation strategies. There is a Polish representation among them.
The five regions are Lower Saxony (Germany), Northern Saxony (Finland), North-Western Region (Romania) and North-Eastern Region (Romania) and as one of five such regions in Europe: Lodzkie.
An important communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions of 7 December 2018 on a coordinated Artificial Intelligence Plan announces the Union's plans for the development of Artificial Intelligence. It assumes the development of investment in this area and it calls Member States for the formulation of their own national strategies.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) fundamentally changes our world, just as electricity used to do in the past. As of today, five EU Member States have already adopted national IS strategies, with earmarked budgets. All other Member States should develop their national IS strategies by mid-2019, building on the work carried out at European level. These strategies should set out levels of investment and implementing measures. Member States and the Commission will also agree in the course of next year on common indicators to monitor the introduction and development of the IS in the Union and the level of effectiveness of existing strategies, using the "AI-Watch" developed by the Commission's Joint Research Centre.
Europe is currently lagging behind in terms of private investment in the AI. If the EU does not take far-reaching action, it risks wasting the opportunities offered by the AI, which could lead to a brain drain and condemn the EU to use AI solutions developed in other countries. For this reason, the European AI strategy has set ambitious but realistic targets: EU-wide public and private investment in the AI needs to be increased to a target of €20 billion per year over the next decade. As a first step, the Commission intends to increase investment in AI under Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation to EUR 1.5 billion over the period 2018-2020, an increase of 70% over the period 2014-2017. If Member States and the private sector make similar efforts, total investment in the Union will increase to more than EUR 20 billion over the period 2018-2020.
This may include investments under the European Structural and Investment Funds. This would allow the Union to further increase its efforts in the next decade and the level of investment would progressively approach EUR 20 billion per year. This would correspond to an annual public sector investment (Member States and the Commission) of €7 billion, comparable to other continents. The Commission proposes that in the next programming period 2021-2027 the Union invests at least EUR 1 billion per year in AI from Horizon Europe and Digital Europe.
Find out more HERE: http://s3platform.jrc.ec.europa.eu/map
