Flemish Minister for Innovation Philippe Muyters (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA) on Friday launched an action plan on artificial intelligence, focussing on research, ethics and training.
The plan comes with an annual price tag of 32 million euros, of which 12 million will be earmarked for research, through universities and centres of knowledge. Another 15 million euros will go towards installing artificial intelligence in companies and helping them to digitize their operations. The remaining five million euros will be invested in training and ethical issues.
Flanders does not have “advantages of scale and public budgets comparable to those of the United States or China,” Muyters noted, but it has “top-level research centres in all the important areas of artificial intelligence.”
“If we specialise intelligently, we can make a difference at the global level,” he stressed.
Jason Bennett
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