Champalimaud Foundation, Lisboa, Portugal — photo by @hmiguelsousa

Portugal’s National AI Strategy

Artificial Intelligence for Environment and Biodiversity: from Forests and Green Economy to Marine Species and Blue Economy

The National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence — “AI Portugal 2030” is neatly presented and summed up on a website called Portugal INCoDE 2030, the website presents a programme of national reform. The website seems to be part of the EU Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition.

Dark green = portugal, light green = European Union

“AI Portugal 2030” Vision is based on seven pillars:

1. Promoting a better society.
2. Fostering AI skills and “digital minds” for all.
3. Promoting new jobs and developing an economy of AI services.
4. Fostering Portugal as a living lab for experimentation of new developments.
5. Securing AI niche markets through key specialized services in Portugal.
6. Contributing to new knowledge and developments through AI research and innovation.
7. Provide better public services for citizens and businesses, and adopt evidence-based approaches on public policies and decision-making processes.

Additionally it is part of a larger initiative called INCoDE 2030. This lists both the main actors and the action lines:

Portugal will be part of the centres of excellency network on AI, collaborating for problem-solving in the this matter, in the European context.

The progress towards the strategy is as follows according to AI Portugal 2030:

1. September 2016 initial preparation of INCoDe.2030, a national initiative to foster digital skills.
2. April 2017 formal launching of INCoDe.2030, with five lines of action: inclusion, education, qualification for employment, specialisation and research.
3. 7th of December 2017 First National Forum on Digital Skills — INCoDe.2030, including specific sessions on AI.
4. January 2018 Portugal participates actively in the preparation of the “European AI declaration” with the EC´s DG Connect
5. January2018 preparatory meetings and consultations for developing new research activities and further developing competences in AI within Public Administration in Portugal
6. February 2018 Identification and launching of four pilot R&D projects to foster AI within Public Administration, in close interaction between FCT and AMA
7. MARCH 2018 launching of “FCT´s Mobilising programme to foster AI in the public administration”, through a competitive call for R&D projects promoted by FCT
8. APRIL 2018 Portugal signs the “European AI declaration”, during the second EU digital Day, Brussels
9. OCTOBER 2018 presentation of 19 R&D projects funded by FCT, under the ”FCT´s Mobilising programme to foster AI in public administration”
10. OCTOBER 2018 kick-off for a specialised team to prepare an AI Portugal 2030 strategy within the scope of INCoDe.2030
11. NOVEMBER 2018 preparatory meetings and consultations for AI Portugal 2030 strategy
12. DECEMBER 12TH, 2018 presentation and public discussion of a draft version of AI Portugal 2030 strategy in the second National Forum on Digital Skills — INCoDe.2030
13. JANUARY — FEBRUARY 2019 consultations with different entities and business enterprises
14. JANUARY 14TH, 2019 launch of a call within the System to Support the Modernisation and Capacitation of Public Administration (SAMA2020) to finance Data Science and Artificial Intelligence projects within Public Administration
15. FEBRUARY 1ST, 2019 presentation and expert discussion of the AI Portugal 2030 strategy at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, in the context of the Carnegie Mellon-Portugal Programme
16. FEBRUARY 12TH, 2019 presentation and public discussion of the AI Portugal 2030 strategy at INL, Braga, with EC´s Deputy DG Connect
17. FEBRUARY 15TH, 2019 presentation and public discussion of the AI Portugal 2030 strategy at FCUP, Porto, with representatives of research centres working on AI
18. FEBRUARY 25TH, 2019 presentation and public discussion of the AI Portugal 2030 strategy in Porto, together with the presentation of OECD 2018 S&T Outlook
19. MARCH 1ST, 2019 “FCT´s Mobilizing programme to foster AI in public administration”, through a competitive call for R&D projects promoted by FCT — second edition

The report opens with a statement from Manuel Heitor Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education saying that Portugal should be on the forefront of AI education and arguing the importance for labour. Alípio Jorge Coordinator of the “AI Portugal 2030” National Strategy outlines the history of artificial intelligence and outlines the process of the report:

“ This document for the Portuguese AI strategy is the result of the first round of discussions made by many representatives from Research, Academia, Companies, and Public Administration.”

Thereafter it follows into a section about digital inclusion and digital autonomy. The beginning of the report gives general outlines of education, qualification, specialisation and research. They talk of increasing funding in research, re-training etc. as many other strategies do. They also mention the Lisbon Machine Learning Summer School. In research they propose:

1. Improving learning methodologies like learning with small data sets and through the generalisation of outliers.
2. Understanding context connecting each statement with everything that came before.
3. Understanding causality and, being able to differentiate correlation and causality.

Further in the introduction they argue:

“It is essential to scale up public and private investments and to mobilise all actors concerned around common strategic interests, from research and innovation, to bringing stateof-the art AI applications into the market so that the economy and the public sector uptake the foreseeable benefits of AI”

In 2018, Europe made a strong commitment to strengthen European Research, Development and Innovation (R&D&I) in AI in order to face an accelerated competition in the global market.

It is not until before page 18 they explain artificial intelligence:

“For the scope of this initiative we refer to AI as the scientific area and the suite of technologies that use programs and physical devices to mimic advanced facets of human intelligence”

Portugal in Technology and AI Now

• Numbers from 2017 show that Portugal has a shortage of qualified human resources in advanced technological areas, mostly in terms of higher education (67% of the EU average in 2017) but also in lifelong learning (88.8%) and new PhDs (94%). Employment in knowledge intensive activities is low (57% of EU) but it is slightly above average in fast-growing enterprises (103.2%).
• Research: Portuguese research has a high level of international collaboration (185% of the EU average in 2017) participating in the 10% most cited works (82.6%) and in the attraction of foreign PhD students (98.3%).
• The R&D expenditure of the business sector has considerably improved since 2015

Vision

1. Promoting a better society.
2. Fostering AI skills and “digital minds” for all.
3. Promoting new jobs and developing an economy of AI services.
4. Fostering Portugal as a living lab for the experimentation of new developments.
5. Securing AI niche markets through key specialised services in Portugal.
6. Contributing to new knowledge and developments through AI research and innovation.
7. Provide better public services for citizens and businesses, and adopt evidence-based approaches on public policies and decision-making processes.

The living lab aspect has outlined seven aspects: AI for urban transformation through sustainable cities; ii) AI for sustainable energy networks; iii) AI for biodiversity, from forests and green economy to marine species and blue economy; iv) AI for autonomous driving; v) AI for cybersecurity; and vi) Quantum materials for AI; vii) adaptive learning curricula for students.

It is written in the strategy:

“AI WILL IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF SERVICES AND THE EFFICIENCY OF PROCESSES, WHILE GUARANTYING THE HUMAN DIGNITY AS WELL AS WELLBEING AND QUALITY OF LIFE”

Certainly optimistic!

The objectives are:

• Added Economic Growth
• Scientific Excellence
• Human Development

The strategy will revolve around four main interacting processes.

1. The attractiveness of Portugal for knowledge intensive young companies and international production units.
2. The development of this ecosystem will motivate the increase of the currently developing innovation levels for a vast number of companies and organisations, including startups, SMEs, and the Government Sector through business networking and by benefiting from the maturing collaboration platforms with academia.
3. The research potential in AI and other areas will grow due to the larger share of private investment and because of the added value induced by the challenges brought by innovating companies.
4. Academia alone and in collaboration with the Industry will increase its capacity and develop different levels of qualification programmes in AI and related areas.

This seems to be a case of: build it and they will come. Simply develop a private industry strong enough and the AI field will come. This will be strengthened through:

• Innovation funding programmes.
• Creation of national and international sandboxes and testing facilities.
• Early development of knowledge-transfer platforms (Digital Innovation Hubs).
• Refinement of the innovation voucher instrument.
• Support for application based and fundamental research that will be multiplied by private funding.
• Support and improvement of working conditions for the development of qualification programmes.
• Creation of qualification vouchers.
• Attraction and retention of talent through internationalisation campaigns.

At a similar time they will work with regulatory frameworks to protect citizens and study the impacts in society.

Specific Actions in the Strategy

The national strategy outlines specific actions:

• Identify KPI for AI investment evaluation in Portugal.
• Set up DIHs focusing on AI, working in close collaboration or integrated with the existing sectorial DIH already in the field and with European DIH (for example the DIH on cybersecurity at Leon or the DIH on IoT in Salamanca).
• Set up one or more AI-on-demand platforms linked to other similar efforts in Europe to be made available through DIH.
• Promote innovation vouchers and those that facilitate industry-academia cooperation.
• Further promote the participation in the European effort for developing regulation and protocols for an Ethical and Secure AI.
• Develop regulatory sandboxes articulated with the EU.
• Foster the collaboration between companies in Portugal and European industrial giants through participation in European Networks.
• Integrate a strategy of closer cooperation between European AI excellence centres around agendas fixed together with industry and based on common knowledge and common challenges for the deployment of AI-based solutions in the areas where Europe faces major challenges;
• Engage with international partners in order to align positions and benefit from international cooperation in AI, including with Africa, in a variety of areas not forgetting subjects such as standards, ethics and cybersecurity. Informed and concerted actions in AI are required and international cooperation is essential in all activities for a responsible and concerted development of AI.
• Reinforce the national structure for funding management.

There is a specific focus in their strategy on sustainability.

“AI, environment and biodiversity: from forests and green economy to marine species and blue economy. AI applied to biodiversity also has an enormous potential in Portugal, from marine species and healthy oceans in a blue economy to forests for a green economy for Europe, this is a cutting-edge area where we want to make a difference.”

They outline a series of different areas and address how Portugal is going to work within sectors with AI.

The strategy will be monitored by a Committee coordinated by FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) and this supporting document will be annually reviewed.

This is #500daysofAI and you are reading article 226. I am writing one new article about or related to artificial intelligence every day for 500 days. My current focus for 100 days 200–300 is national and international strategies for artificial intelligence.