Artificial Intelligence National Action Plan updated – 6 strategic goals in Artificial Intelligence
The National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (UYZS) 2024-2025 Action Plan, which is Turkey’s first national strategy document in the field of AI, has been published.
6 strategic priorities were determined with the Action Plan, whose vision is “To produce value on a global scale with an agile and sustainable artificial intelligence ecosystem for a prosperous Türkiye.”
Speaking at the “Stratcom Youth 2024 Youth and Technology in Global Communication: New Era” program organized by the Directorate of Communications, Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun said, “While artificial intelligence tools offer new opportunities, they also bring serious challenges. We are aware of these threats and are cautious.” “But we are approaching artificial intelligence technologies with a bold approach,” he said.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE STRATEGY HAS BEEN PUBLISHED
With the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (UYZS), which is Turkey’s first national strategy document in the field of artificial intelligence, Turkey took its place among the countries that published the artificial intelligence (AI) strategy.
UYZS was prepared in line with the Eleventh Development Plan and the Presidential Annual Programs, in line with the “Digital Turkey” vision and the “National Technology Move”.
A participatory approach was adopted during the preparation process of the strategy; A comprehensive study was conducted with the contributions of many stakeholders such as public institutions, academia, private sector organizations, NGOs, professional organizations and international organizations.
The Strategy, whose vision is “to produce value on a global scale with an agile and sustainable artificial intelligence ecosystem for a prosperous Türkiye”, has set out the following 6 strategic priorities:
WHAT IS IN THE ACTION PLAN?
Within the scope of these strategic priorities, 24 objectives and 119 measures were determined.
With UYZS, measures that will put the studies in the field of artificial intelligence carried out in Turkey between 2021 and 2025 on a common ground and a strong governance mechanism to implement these measures are put forward.
The implementation process of the strategy is coordinated by the “Steering Board”, which meets under the chairmanship of the Vice President. The AI Ecosystem Advisory Group and technical working groups, including all relevant stakeholders, were also established.
The action plan, which reveals the implementation details of the strategy, was prepared under the coordination of the Secretariat in line with the decisions of the Steering Board. The Action Plan monitoring and evaluation process is carried out every three months with periodic feedback from the institutions responsible for the action.
The rapidly transforming structure of the AI field requires a dynamic implementation process for the Strategy. With the governance mechanism implemented, it will be necessary to respond quickly to the opportunities, risks and uncertainties that may arise for Türkiye with the participation of all stakeholders.
Thanks to the ongoing actions in the implementation process; It is aimed to produce value on a global scale by carrying out AI projects effectively and in line with ethical principles, increasing the maturity level and competitiveness of the AI ecosystem.
When we look at the threats and opportunities caused by artificial intelligence, a striking picture emerges…
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THREATS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Greater competition between democratic and authoritarian forms of government, fueled by China, Russia, and other countries by promoting authoritarianism and spreading disinformation, is putting pressure on longstanding norms that encourage cooperative approaches to the global commons.
This competition also leverages technological advances such as artificial intelligence, biotechnologies and related biosafety, the development and production of microelectronics, and potential quantum advances to gain a stronger influence on worldwide narratives affecting the global geopolitical balance.
Especially the fields of artificial intelligence and biotechnology are advancing rapidly; Convergences between various fields of science and technology are likely to lead to further significant breakthroughs.
WHAT TO DO?
In the future, countries that use artificial intelligence technology effectively and efficiently will be a few steps ahead in international competition in terms of their level of development.
While artificial intelligence is an opportunity, it also poses great threats and risks to national security. Threat assessments regarding artificial intelligence are made as follows:
– Weapon systems developed using artificial intelligence technologies pose a risk for countries. Many countries, especially the USA and China, are making significant investments in autonomous weapon systems. Countries such as Canada, New Zealand and Australia, which have difficulty in providing military personnel, are trying to fill these gaps with artificial intelligence weapons.
– The development in autonomous weapon systems will provide states with opportunities and capabilities in the future to collect and analyze intelligence, produce more effective tools and equipment in the military field, easily meet military logistics needs, and develop complex cyber attack capabilities.
– Artificial intelligence systems also function extensively in the spread of information pollution and disinformation. While it supports the creation of realistic, artificial intelligence-supported fake content, it makes it easier for threat actors to spread disinformation to the target audience and manipulate the digital universe.
– Artificial intelligence-supported information pollution and disinformation, in addition to being a national security problem; It also affects many issues such as human dignity, healthy conduct of democratic processes, ethical values and human rights.
– It is possible to deepen political, social and economic destructive activities through social sensitivities through artificial intelligence-supported systematic and algorithmic disinformation activities.
LEGAL INFRASTRUCTURE SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED
As a result of the development and widespread use of innovative digital technologies, the impact of artificial intelligence in business and social life may increase, and thus the decision-making role of the individual will be assumed by artificial intelligence in many areas.
From this perspective, artificial intelligence systems that will continue their existence by communicating with people in daily life must have the ability to see ethical values and responsibilities, to recognize behaviors that may harm people, and to understand good and bad in order to adapt to society.
In this regard, a legal infrastructure needs to be established in our country to determine responsibilities and ethical values for the production and development of artificial intelligence.
“DEEPFAKE” TECHNOLOGY
In artificial intelligence terminology, fake videos created using the deep learning technique are called “deepfakes”. Nowadays, with the help of artificial intelligence technology, it is possible to change a digital image and produce unreal videos that are so convincing that even a person cannot distinguish them, with their face, voice, facial expressions and speech.
Frauds in deepfake technology on digital platforms appear in multi-dimensional ways, such as manipulating the truth, using the images of real people used as sources without permission for other purposes, and deceiving the masses by producing a reality that does not exist through these people.
It is of great importance that anti-deepfake software to be developed against this threat receive global support, that defense policies include updates against threats in the digital environment, and that laws are created to support the fight against digital crime in order to prevent the harmful use of deepfake technology.
METAVERSE AND AVATARS
Metaverse envisions all users within the system sharing the same augmented reality or virtual reality experience. Since the people on this platform are present through virtual personalities (avatars), there is a need for a system that will determine personal rights and responsibilities in the virtual universe and manage ethical problems that may arise.
Avatars have no legal basis. For this reason, images of avatars in the system can be easily manipulated or imitated.
Another threat that the Metaverse program may cause is the possibility of alienating individuals, especially young people, from the real world. Research reveals this threat.
According to a study conducted in the USA, 60 percent of Generation Z and 62 percent of Millennials think that how a person presents himself online is more important than how he presents himself in real life. 39 percent of millennials say they can express themselves better online.
Another threat that the Metaverse may pose is the possibility of causing unrest in society and providing an environment suitable for manipulations.
VIRTUAL REALITY
Although not yet widely used, privacy violations in business and social life reveal the negative aspects of augmented reality and virtual reality technologies. First of all, people who will use augmented reality technology need to be informed and made aware in detail about the security vulnerabilities and risks related to the system.
The combination of long-used technologies such as facial recognition with augmented reality raises concerns about protecting individuals’ privacy. The application, which can be installed on augmented reality glasses, also allows individuals to view their personal information.
For example, taking measurements of rooms with augmented reality for a durable consumer product to be placed in homes, scanning and listing book titles, or recording what foods are in the kitchen constitute a violation of privacy. Although these may seem innocent for measuring and analyzing consumer behavior, they can lead to individuals being classified or subjected to undesirable labeling.
SMART CITIES
According to the OECD, it is estimated that 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. Since it is thought that the population increase in cities will bring with it some negativities, the smart city concept, which introduces the idea of areas supported by advanced vital technologies, which improves the quality of life of individuals with physical and digital systems, offers a modern, competitive, functional and sustainable future, comes to the fore within the scope of combating these problems. In Turkey, the “National Smart Cities Strategy and Action Plan” was published in 2019.
Smart cities are considered technological areas that make extensive use of big data and the Internet of Things and are vulnerable to cyber threats.
As shown by the large-scale DDoS attack that occurred in the USA in 2016, establishing technological security is important in eliminating cyber risks to smart cities.
It is predicted that with the increase in smart cities, digital infrastructures will also become widespread. For this reason, it is thought that traditional cyber security measures may be insufficient to protect smart cities.
QUANTUM COMPUTERS
Quantum computers enable modern machines to work faster and decipher information 100 thousand times faster, using quantum bits that complete difficult tasks in as fast as one second. Since encrypted data is open to quantum systems, the spread of these computers may contribute to the idea and commercial life, but also brings serious security problems.
Encrypted online shopping, banking transactions and social media interactions can be controlled by other users thanks to quantum computers. It is even claimed that these systems may have the power to destroy the digital defense systems of states. It is known that, in the face of threats that quantum computers may pose, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology has started working by establishing 70 teams to create quantum resistant encryption algorithms by 2022.
A full awareness of quantum computers has not yet emerged in Turkey. There is no preparation even at the intellectual level to prepare an action plan on this issue.
Supporting initiatives to develop quantum computers in our country, closely monitoring the developments in the world, following risks and opportunities, and developing a comprehensive strategy in this direction would be an appropriate and correct step.
Thanks to Quantum Gravity studies and developed quantum sensors, the methods of finding time and location on the world can be completely changed, it will be possible to learn the exact location of a person anywhere in the world without using any GPS device, this development will have a significant impact on the character of military operations, direction finding technologies will have a different way independent of satellites. It is stated that it will be possible to detect aircraft with stealth technology with quantum radars.