Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1179052
24.10.19 11 INTERVIEW humans, not suppress them' and when they get up – and can alert medical services if for some reason the device doesn't detect any movement at a time when the person would usu- ally be awake. Such a device could also include fall detec- tion, which would detect that a person suddenly fell and subse- quently stopped moving. ese can be life-saving in certain scenarios. I know, for instance, a case where a young woman suffered an epileptic seizure, with the AI device she was wearing immediately detecting this and notifying her family. Her father noted that, had she not been wearing the device, the required medical assistance might not have gotten to her in time. e government will soon be undertaking a number of pilot projects in the traffic manage- ment, education, health, cus- tomer care, tourism and water and electricity management ar- eas which will really highlight the ways AI is of benefit to us. In the traffic management area, the government will be investing in smart traffic lights and the optimisation of pathways, enabling drivers to choose the roads with the least traffic. Driverless cars are an- other aspect of this, albeit one which still needs a few years to become commonplace. In the education sector, AI will be used in Malta as a tool to help teachers in various ways, for example it can sig- nificantly speed up corrections – which tend to take up a large chunk of educators' time. Oth- er possible uses of AI here are to use the technology to devise streamlined ways of learn- ing, tailored for the individual needs of students, and to de- tect issues a syllabus might be causing students, with the aim of subsequently drawing up better syllabi. I am pleased to say that teachers welcomed the initiative to integrate the tech- nology into teaching. When it comes to health care, the plan is to use AI locally for things such as accelerating bi- omedical research, developing e-care trajectories for chroni- cally patients, and the manage- ment of waiting list. AI will also be integrated within the Phar- macy of Your Choice scheme. In customer care arena, Servizz.gov will be taking over the implementation of AI, which, to start out, will con- sist in a system which suggests replies to customer questions sent by email, based on an expanding database of infor- mation fed into the system and replies to previous similar questions, thereby helping staff reply to queries. e next step would be developing a com- pletely AI-driven chat bot. Regarding tourism, an app- based smart tourism project, which has already started be- ing implemented, will use AI to boost tourists' experience in Malta and recommend tour- istic routes for them to follow based on their interests, such as visiting beaches or going to museums. Virtual and aug- mented reality will also be integrated within the experi- ence. e project is using the wealth of data available based on previous visits by tourists throughout the years. In the utilities sector, AI can be used to automate manual processes, help with the opti- mised distribution of load, en- hance the performance of the water and electricity network and enable better interpreta- tion of collected data. Do you feel it is realistic to believe that Malta can become a global AI hub, when it is competing with other, bigger jurisdictions which have more of a background in the field, such as the US and China – which have strong ecosystems – and European jurisdictions such as Germany and the UK? Malta has potential because of its size, which makes it an ideal testbed and launch pad. e country's population is relatively very small, which ef- fectively means that the whole island can be the subject of an AI pilot programme. Malta is also attractive because of its legal framework, and, in fact, the Malta Digital Innovation Authority, which promotes the jurisdiction and sets and en- forces standards, is the first of its kind in the world. Another advantage is that the drive to- wards AI is supported by the government, which means the necessary resources are availa- ble to us. Moreover, the island's telecommunications infra- structure is one of the most ad- vanced in Europe. Malta is also an EU member, which opens many doors. All in all, I think we have the right conditions to become important players in this area. We've heard of scenarios where AI takes over the jobs which humans currently do. For instance, China recently unveiled the world's first AI news anchor, negating the need to actually employ a human being to read the news. Is this a real danger? AI is considered part of the technological revolution, also known as the fourth industrial revolution. It is useful to frame this within the context of devel- opments which have happened in the past. Every technological advancement which has taken place has given rise to some fears that it might challenge traditional industries. Prior to the industrial revolution, people mainly worked in ag- riculture. Once the industrial revolution came about many new job sectors were created, and the nature of people's work changed. When computers started becoming mainstream in the 1970s, the fear again was that they would take over peo- ple's jobs. But this actually led to workers being trained in ar- eas of IT, and nowadays practi- cally everyone uses computers. e same can be said for the internet. Now that AI's time is here, there will be some jobs which will be challenged and recon- figured. erefore, I see it more as a matter of the reconfiguring of certain jobs and the creation of new work opportunities. If humans and machines work together, they can create things which we could otherwise nev- er even imagine. I see AI as a way of empowering humans, not suppressing them. Do you see any challenges ahead when it comes to AI? I think economists might be better placed to answer cer- tain elements of that question in relation to industry and so on, but, so far as my own area goes, the biggest challenge I foresee is embracing the tech- nology. e research and stud- ies we have conducted show that people in general are ready to accept AI, but the challenge will be for professionals to em- brace the use of the technology in their own fields. In the past, many professionals – for in- stance, those in the medical or aviation sectors – were some- what reluctant to accept new technology and technological requirements. ey might see it as something which is in- truding in their line of work and asking them to change the way they do things. So, until they fully embrace it and accept that it will take them forward, this could be a challenge. Malta's small size gives it an advantage when it comes to experimenting with AI, and a number of legal and data sandboxes will be created to allow those in the sector to experiment with the technology freely, but within certain parameters