President Karis: Smart use of AI opportunities could give us a competitive advantage

As part of the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, President Alar Karis has spoken at two high-level events organised by Estonia with UNICEF and the Netherlands focusing on the use of AI in education and the economy.

The head of state remarked that while AI comes with certain risks, it is not going anywhere. “But if we make smart, conscious and responsible use of the opportunities that AI affords, we could gain a real competitive advantage,” he said,

adding that the first field in which Estonia was implementing AI was education. “It is important for us to understand that AI will transform, and indeed is already transforming, learning and education,” he noted. “And it is not the technology itself that is doing that, but people: teachers and students.”

A representative of UNICEF raised three key points during the discussion: that it is recommended to move away from endless pilot projects to focus on how all schools can be involved; that there is a need to maintain the focus on learning outcomes and quality of education rather than on the technology itself; and that the ecosystem is important, since change happens across the teacher, classroom, school and community levels. UNICEF also highlighted Estonia’s approach in particular, which has hewn closely to these principles and achieved good results.

President Karis is being accompanied on his visit to India by Linnar Viik, a co-founder and member of the supervisory board of the AI Leap foundation; Ivo Visak, the foundation’s CEO; and a business delegation including representatives of Crowdin, Better Medicine, Lei Register, Jio Estonia, GHRP Portfolio, Digiotouch and Cybexer Technologies.

The AI Impact Summit is one of the most significant international forums of its kind, with this year’s event expected to attract more than 15,000 participants. It follows the summit held in Paris last year, and marks the first time that a country in the Global South has hosted such a large-scale AI event, with the aim of introducing more regional perspectives into international debate. The summit is focusing on inclusive, responsible and socially impactful AI and on boosting international cooperation in a rapidly changing technological environment.

Gallery (Raigo Pajula/Office of the President): https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCKEZQ