The dossier is sufficiently important, if not crucial, for the two important ministers within the government to unveil, together, the strategic vision for artificial intelligence and the data-driven innovation strategy to support the emergence of a sustainable and trusted economy.
“This is a national and cross-party priority for the entire government,” said Xavier Bettel, adding that these strategies were the subject of extensive consultation with other ministries within the Governing Council.
The Prime Minister said that the strategic vision for artificial intelligence is based on three pillars: making Luxembourg one of the most advanced digital societies in Europe and the world; creating a sustainable data-driven economy and building citizen-focused artificial intelligence.
This approach involves identifying in which area Luxembourg can stand out globally. To this end, Luxembourg will take a serious and critical look at the role it wants to play with regards to society.
“As a diversified and innovative nation, we will determine the impact that this technology will have on human rights, on the lives of citizens and on our democratic values. Artificial intelligence is ready to be harnessed. It is up to us to determine what the applications will be,” explains the Prime Minister.
Country as a forerunner
“Luxembourg will remain pioneer in digital innovation”. Deputy Prime Minister Étienne Schneider set the scene to present the strategy for data-driven innovation. This includes supporting the digital transformation of priority economic sectors: manufacturing industry 4.0, logistics, ecotech, healthtech, space industry and financial services.
The strategic document presented this Friday describes for each of the economic sectors targeted the general context as well as the current situation and proposes concrete actions to increase productivity and ensure their sustainable development in a data economy.
The proposed measures focus on three areas: strengthening the digital infrastructure, supporting businesses to integrate innovative digital technologies and creating a legal and financial environment conducive to the data based economy.
“Making people’s lives easier”
“The use of data is a way for companies to be more efficient, profitable and productive. Until now, developments have been carried out with new machines. There, it will also be a question of making existing machines more profitable, by using data in an optimal way to improve business processes,” says Mario Grotz, Director General for Research, Intellectual Property and New Technologies at the Ministry of the Economy, also President of Luxinnovation, and coordinator of this strategic document.
If companies (and not just industrial ones) are directly affected by this approach, so are citizens, directly or indirectly. “It’s also about making people’s lives easier,” says Xavier Bettel. “Nor do we want to do everything possible, just because it is possible. We want to focus everything we do on people and make it really useful for them.”
An approach that Mario Grotz elaborates upon: “New services can be developed for the benefit of the population. For example, by cross-referencing the earth observation data received from the Copernicus programme with data already available elsewhere, it is possible to improve mobility by making traffic more fluid. The potential for improvement is enormous! The field of health is another target, as patient treatments can be adapted and better meet needs through better analysis of medical information, while respecting patient confidentiality, of course.”