Countries around the world are beginning to grapple with the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI). While some expressed concern about the emerging technology, others, like Romania, embraced it.
According to the Financial Times, Romanian officials have launched an artificial intelligence robot called Ion, which aims to enhance the government's understanding of public concerns. Romanian Innovation Minister Sebastian Burduja commented on the development: “This is the first attem pt, the first experiment, to use AI to connect ordinary citizens with their decision makers. I think it has great potential to strengthen democracy and strengthen the legitimacy of governments.”
The bot obtains data by automatically scanning social media, specific hashtags and messages from the public through online platforms set up for this specific purpose. The data is then turned into reports for government officials. The “dream,” Burduja said, is to have AI make policy recommendations based on data it receives from the public. Sabin Dima, founder and CEO of Humans.ai, the company behind Ion, told Cointelegraph that by allowing officials to “talk to data,” decision-making can be improved to better meet the needs of citizens.
"AI allows us to engage citizens in more inclusive governance and help government representatives simulate policy scenarios." Human.ai is currently working with an independent ethics committee made up of independent e-government experts and top university researchers to help the bot “remain neutral and ethical,” Dima said. At least one report has been created from the data since the project launched in March, according to the developers. Upgrades are expected this summer to allow it to give answers and to feature a dashboard for officials to filter data based on various parameters.
This comes as the European Union prepares its AI Act, the EU's first comprehensive set of guidelines and regulations for the development and deployment of AI. As one of the 27 member states of the European Union, Romania will be bound by any provisions emerging from the AI Act. In China, a state-funded artificial intelligence company recently launched a chatbot that aims to rival OpenAi's ChatGPT and surpass it. Meanwhile, US lawmakers met with top tech executives to discuss the future of the technology.
