The assessment that Greece and Europe need to face the new reality, which is taking shape in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and take steps in the fields of increasing computing power, intelligent algorithms and data, was recently expressed by the Expert Secretary of Long-Term Planning at the Presidency of the Greek Government, Yannis Mastrogeorgiou, on the occasion of the Thessaloniki Future Thinking Dialogues (TFTD 2023) conference, in Thessaloniki.

As he said, Europe is back in computing power. He pointed out that Open AI, the creator of the large language model ChatGPT, has 25 times more computing power than the British Government. At the same time, emphasis needs to be placed on intelligent algorithms, which will “button” this computing power with the data.

According to Mr. Mastrogeorgiou, through organizations like “Demokritos”, which – as he said – is doing an excellent job, Greece has the possibility to move forward and take a dignified position in fields that are usually considered exclusive to other countries, such as Machine Learning and the data.

At the same time, our country could “come forward” in the matter of ethical principles for the use of IT, as it has a centuries-old tradition in the field of philosophy and ethics.

He added that Artificial Intelligence, especially generative AI, is here to stay and that in the next several years we will be living with its “intelligent assistance”. He even added that in the near future we will probably have the anagram of AI (Artificial Intelligence) to IA (Intelligent Assistance), for everything produced by man.

According to Mr. Mastrogeorgiou, because every crisis has within it the seed of opportunity, the pandemic has created new conditions, with people having crossed the threshold of a new digital world to work, play and live – even those for for whom such a thing was not considered self-evident.
“We now have the ability for people to be able to use very important tools to help.

What I think we all need to understand is that IT needs competent people to be able to function and evolve and that it’s an industry that anyone can jump in and find something to do – there is no need to know IT in the narrow sense. TN gives you the possibility to control and strengthen more what you already had as a background” he underlined and added that Greece can do the same, that is to use TN to see how it can succeed added value in areas that constitute its comparative advantages, such as tourism and culture.

The dumbest phrase on the way to 2025 is ‘I’ve finished my studies’

In any case, for any country to reap the rewards, the education systems, which are designed based on models of the previous century, need to be strengthened and changed and the population to reskill and upskill, that is, to update and upgrade skills of. According to Mr. Mastrogeorgiou, approximately 1.5 billion people are estimated to need reskilling and upskilling by 2030 and not just learn to code but start to understand in a different way how they can become more productive using AI tools.

“There is not a person in Singapore over the age of 25 who will not take lifelong learning courses. The national priority is lifelong learning. And what must definitely come out of our vocabulary is “I completed my studies”. There is no more stupid phrase on the way to 2025″, emphasized Mr. Mastrogeorgiou.
Referring to Europe, he pointed out that it needs to trace the fine line between regulation and the development of innovation. As she said, she does not “metabolize” changes easily, and the debate about where and how her own innovation will go is not yet fully open. “Here, too, an overall European effort is needed, because even France and Britain, although they produce excellent innovation, are too small on their own to cope with the barrage of developments.”

In relation to the ability of business and the state to respond to the speed of developments, he expressed the assessment that big business has already “gone too far ahead”, but in the end it all comes down to how society will metabolize and absorb the change. The job of the State, he added, is to create rules and take good practices from the private sector, in order to apply them to the State – and the private sector to realize that “the State does not have the handbrake on. As for the speeds, we will find them.”