“Artificial intelligence is about trust. This is something we need to pay attention to. We need artificial intelligence to live safer, to live happier, to build better societies, to strengthen Democracy” emphasized the Minister of Digital Governance, Dimitris Papastergiou, during his presentation at the Masters of Digital conference of the DIGITALEUROPE organization on the theme “Europe 2030: A Digital Powerhouse”which takes place in Brussels.

He noted that “artificial intelligence can help with this, for example, by isolating disinformation. This is something we need to work on together,” he noted, noting that “our contribution should be related to how we can bring the state to hands of citizens and on their phones, and to convince them that technology can make their lives better, so that they trust us, believe in us and participate.”

He stressed that there should be no fear of artificial intelligence if they follow “what the European Union has foreseen in the Ai Act and specify what we want it to do”.

The Minister of Digital Governance made special reference to the government’s strategic choice for the utilization of artificial intelligence in the Greek State, as indicated in a relevant press release. Specifically, Dimitris Papastergiou pointed out: “A few months ago, the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, formed an advisory committee on artificial intelligence, which began to map the possibilities of applying artificial intelligence to the Public Administration and, of course, the benefits that the country would get from them.” Furthermore, Dimitris Papastergiou referred to the positive response of the citizens to the first application of artificial intelligence of the Greek State, as the Digital Assistant-mAigov, daily answers on average 10,000 questions asked by the citizens and concerning the Public Administration.

He also highlighted the importance of using Green Energy, investing in powerful computing systems and increasing the availability of Open Data for the development of artificial intelligence applications and the strengthening of the wider technology sector. “We need to open up our Data and create an ecosystem for all these new companies that need Data. They say Data is the new oil,” he concluded.