The Challenge

Though Over the last years, Greece has taken major steps towards the digital transformation of its Public Sector, improving significantly the citizens’ experience and, businesses in their daily operations, the utilization of AI is at the lowest levels in Europe

there are major challenges ahead for achieving digital excellence in the Greek Public Sector: the vast majority of Public Administration procedures and services remains fragmented and obsolete, whilst robust technologies such as AI lead now global GovTech developments.

Although there is a considerable scientific and technological potential in the field of AI/ML in Greece, the country is lagging behind other European countries, in terms of adopting and utilizing AI/ML, as well as regarding infrastructures.

Solution

In order to address this challenge and accelerate the utilization of AI/ML in the Public Sector, the European Digital Innovation Hub for Digital Governance – GR digiGOV-innoHUB, lays the foundations for a strong coalition of stakeholders for AI, building on the high-level expertise, capacity, infrastructures and initiatives of its partners, as well as other collaborating EDIHs.

GR digiGOV-innoHUB supports the development of a new generation of public services based on advanced digital technologies (AI, ML, IoT, Blockchain, HPC), with open source, open data and open standards. It aims to enrich the ecosystem of Digital Transformation actors and to facilitate innovation in Public Administration, transforming it into a large innovation buyer and investor.

The Hub multi-stakeholder approach to AI is based on certain priorities:

• Develop a roadmap to accelerate the use of AI for new, innovative public services

• Open Calls for proposals and specific actions, enabling SMEs and start-ups to use the GR digiGOV-innoHUB services to implement pilot solutions, using off-the-shelf models that usually require a significant investment in computing resources for the training and testing phase

• Facilitate the development of AI/ML tools and platforms for the Greek Sector (Greek Open LLMs) and the use of the EU AI on demand platform

• Provide the necessary AI-related skills to civil servants and organize joint actions with the National Centre for Public Administration (NCPA), as well as academic partners, so as to retrain civil servants in future and emerging technologies

• Orchestrate the engagement of AI/ML Communities of Practice and AI/ML solution providers and connect them with service design professionals and other stakeholders. This priority takes on particular significance, following the establishment of a High Level Advisory Committee on AI in Greece as a national priority 

Results and benefits

GR digiGOV-innoHUB addresses its priorities via an agile and collaborative approach that sets the ground for enhancing the adoption and exploitation of AI/ML.GR digiGOV-innoHUB set up in June 2023 the AI4PS a special team that will form the roadmap for developing innovative solutions using AI technologies, within the Hub ecosystem. The roadmap includes:

• Open AI sandbox and open LLM

• Concept note for the gpt open source model in Greek https://github.com/eellak/glossAPI

• Close collaboration with experts and developers of the GR digiGOV-innoHUB consortium

• Organization of workshops on AI

• Assessment of relevant infrastructures, datasets and platforms (e.g. AI on Demand Platform)

• Cost proposal on the use of Open Models

• Funding opportunities, from national and European programmes

On 12 May 2023, GR digiGOV-innoHUB organized the workshop “AI: Synergies for the future”, showcasing that there is a strong basis for multi-sectoral cooperation for AI, leveraging the high-level expertise, capacity, relevant infrastructure and initiatives of the Hub partners.

GR digiGOV-innoHUB partners have developed services using AI/ML applications and technologies and exploiting existing infrastructures. These infrastructures will build on and exploit results from R&D activities of the partners, while interoperability with EU infrastructures and corresponding initiatives is sought. Today, the Hub partners contribute with the following:

• Meltemi, the first open-source Large Language Model for Greek, ATHENA Research Center
• UNIWA AI HUB, University of West Attica
• Greek Open Source LLM (glossAPI), GFOSS - Open Technologies Alliance
• GRNET AI infrastructures, GRNET-National Infrastructures for Research & Technology
• NTUA AI infrastructures, National Technical University of Athens

 

Lessons Learnt

The adoption and use of AI technologies in the Public Sector can lead to more efficient and transparent governance, to the benefit of citizens and businesses. The significance of AI in digital governance is reflected in the Greek Digital Transformation Bible 2020-2025, in the action for the implementation of a platform in the Public Sector that will contribute horizontally to all AI and machine learning (AI/ML) projects and applications. However, AI penetration in Greece lags behind Europe. 

In light of the above, GR digiGOV-innoHUB holds a crucial role in laying the foundations for the exploitation of AI. Further actions are needed in order to attract, engage and collaborate with SMEs, Startups, Research & Academia, Infrastructure providers & Policy makers, as well as specific actions to empower Public Administration staff with AI related skills. 

Joint activities with the EDIH network, European fora and EC funded projects with similar scope are also essential to achieve digital excellence in the Greek Public Sector.