AI report
The Croatian Government is currently working on its national AI strategy. A working group consisting of experts from academia, business, civil society and the public sector has been appointed to develop the AI strategy. The working group has finalised a first draft of the National plan for the development of artificial intelligence, including policy measures and actions for the period 2021 to 2025. A final version of the strategy will be completed in 2021.
AI to address societal challenges
Climate and environment
During the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Zagreb hosted a workshop on ESA - Croatia "Space technologies for the green plan and digital economy". The workshop, organised by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb and the Ministry of Science and Education was meant to discuss the contribution of the space industry and technology to all key goals of the EU Council Presidency. On this occasion, the private and public sector experts from Croatia learnt more from leading European experts on how opportunities under ESA since Earth Observation, have become key to measuring progress towards goals for sustainable development and the Green Plan as one of the central goals of the President of the European Commission. Europe's leadership in Earth Observation produces an incredible wealth of data available for environmental monitoring and security in Europe. New opportunities related to information technology, big data, AI and miniature satellites are available to the benefit of environment.
On the 15th February 2020, a new Installation Research Project entitled "Software sensor augmentation at environmental data analysis laboratory” funded by the Croatian Science Foundation started. This initiative encompasses the following partners: the University of Split; the Faculty of Science of the University of Zagreb; the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences of the St. Kliment Ohridski University; the Faculty of Technical Sciences of Ericsson Nikola Tesla; and the R&D Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries. The scientific goal of the project is to employ machine learning models to ultimately reach a more efficient resource utilisation with positive effects on industry and environment.
COVID-19 pandemic
Croatia deployed a digital assistant called Andrija that can be activated on WhatsApp and that guides people towards diagnosing and managing suspected COVID-19 infections. This “virtual doctor” powered by AI was developed by Croatian IT companies in cooperation with epidemiologists.