‘Estonia using AI smartly by building trust between govts and societies’ | India News
Estonia is extensively using AI in edu and wants to collaborate with India. In an interview with TOI’s Surjit Gupta, Estonian President Alar Koris talks about how he has built trust while launching citizen-centric e-services. Excerpt:What can Estonia offer to the world and India in terms of AI and technology? n We can share our experience and how we have digitized our society to India and the rest of the world. One important thing that we should share with the rest of the world is how we are building trust when we go to use digitization or AI. You should build trust not only in technology, but also in government and society as a whole. AI is still developing so fast. We don’t know what is happening, let’s say in three months or even two weeks. But we are ready and we are trying to use this new technology smartly. We can say that to India. India is also a digitized country, so we learn from each other. Can you give us an idea of digitalization in Estonia?In Estonia, everything is online. That means you can get married online too. I mentioned taxes, I mentioned prescriptions, basically everything. One startup, instead of using lawyers, is using AI. This does not mean that we no longer need lawyers, but we can focus on matters that are more important because there are queues to go to court in Estonia. How do you ensure data privacy?Privacy is becoming more and more important with AI technology. Data may belong to citizens, but data privacy, especially in healthcare, is a concern. We see in Europe how difficult it is to introduce ID cards in some countries because people are concerned about data. Has digitization resulted in increased productivity?Some have calculated that it increased GDP by 5%. This is a calculation made only by officials. It makes your life very comfortable. In some countries, filling out tax forms is very difficult. For us, it is pre-filled. This takes a few minutes if you have nothing to add. It makes the whole thing transparent. For medical prescription, you don’t need to visit a doctor. He knows what ails you and they give you a prescription, you see it right away and you go to a pharmacy. What are the areas of cooperation you see with India?Like India, Estonia also values education. We can help with this. We started the AI leap. We gave computers access to schools 30 years ago. Now, we are doing the same with AI. We teach teachers and students how to use AI smartly. We collaborated with OpenAI and Google and asked them to provide a platform tailored to the needs of students in Estonia. AI Leaps is in every school and we are learning how to use it and change the whole system of how we teach students. What is your opinion about AI control?Regulations are required. We try to make sure that there are global rules, at least to a certain level. But every country is different. Technology has limitations and rules.
