Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1379774
8 OPINION 3.6.2021 I t was October 2019. en Prime Min- ister Joseph Muscat gave a speech at the Delta summit and talked about his vision to regulate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IOT) in an all-encompassing regulatory frame- work. He expressed hope that Malta would be served by a fast 5G wave band, which unfortunately only just reached us last month. With hindsight, millions were invested to place the island as the first EU member state to regulate blockchain and virtual financial assets. Perhaps, ex-prime min- ister Muscat was overly ambitious about potential return of business reaped from blockchain, yet his vision was extended to scale the next mountain of AI. Can tiny Malta act too big for its shoes when it tries to emulate the USA and China in the mad race to the bottom of the AI crucible? Undoubtedly, it is a technology that tech giants pour billions of dollars an- nually into research and development. Really and truly, Malta ranks as the low- est contributor to research when this is worked as a percentage of GDP to R&D. Regardless of this handicap, govern- ment is keen to be seen helping inno- vation and would like to see Malta be- coming a jurisdiction that attracts talent from all over the world. Critics are not so sure - saying with the pandemic that wreaked havoc with in- ternational travel, we have to act contrite and perhaps start afresh late this year. Certainly, hubris was high in 2018, when we started to run yet reality caught up with us - as an infant we had just learnt how to walk. Is this a question of what we know about AI, we did not have time to learn? Still no harm in blowing our trumpet particularly as seven EU countries in the south of Europe are still on the nursery slopes where it concerns AI regulation. Another AIBC Summit promoting AI is to be held locally next Novem- ber. Previously, in 2019, AIBC Summit welcomed over 12,000 attendees from over 80 countries. is year, the AIBC summit will run in tangent with SiG- MA's gaming expo, offering tremendous opportunity for crossover investment. ere was a formidable list of speakers to attract crowds. It is encouraging to know how govern- ment has spared no expense to promote such events to highlight the opportuni- ties in Malta - dubbed the Blockchain Is- land yet the proof of the pudding is in the eating and so far Blockchain and crypto currency business have eluded us. Malta was one of the first countries in the EU to regulate VFA services with a new state of the art law introduced in November 2018 with Moneybite being the pioneer company first licensed to provide vari- ous digital services including invoicing and payments to international suppliers and buying and selling cryptocurrency over-the-counter service. e new VFA licence will also allow Moneybite to receive and process order, custodian and nominee services. It will also authorise it to execute orders on be- half of account holders. Back in 2018, there was a wholehearted attempt by government agencies to spirit away in parliament new DLT legislation and ways how MDIA (main AI regula- tor) will license audit specialists in a con- certed rush to lay the foundations for the sector. One cannot but admire pioneers like Eman Pulis - a firebrand who has successfully hosted mega Sigma events in tandem with AIBC in the past. e gargantuan task to launch the is- land on the ephemeral heights of A.I was championed by Silvio Schembri- a young economist recently appointed as minister for the economy and industry. His ambition is to open opportunities for Malta to gain from the wave of popular- ity that is gripping the ubiquitous sector of robotics. ese will certainly have a profound impact on traditional manufacturing; for instance, our health sector is already making use of robotics to allocate med- icines to patients and assist in useful operations taking place in the operating theatre. Put simply, one may explain that this technology will in the near future spearhead novelties in the manufactur- ing sectors and create interesting sce- narios in areas of productivity, safety, service, automated warehousing, trans- portation, land registration and police records. As was the case of the internet revolu- tion, some of the changes will happen in a gradual, evolutionary way; others will occur in a sudden, revolutionary man- ner. Apart from AI there is its cousin - Machine Learning (ML), and its sibling - Deep Learning (DL). One may actually think they are all of the same stable but in fact they are different. It goes without saying that the learning process involves feeding huge amounts of data to the algorithm and allowing the algorithm to adjust itself and improve. For example, humans might tag pictures that have a cat in them versus those that do not. en, the algorithm tries to build a model that can accurately tag a picture as containing a cat or not as well as a hu- man. In its simplicity, one may then con- clude that once the accuracy level is high enough, the machine has now "learned" what a cat looks like. PKF Malta has taken the initiative to launch a training lab called the Bit-Pod concept. It is a non-profit organisation, intended to help connect entrepreneurs (mainly start-ups) to people, program- ming engineers, and other enthusiasts across the AI, blockchain and robotic fields. Whether you are looking to connect, learn, share, or work, Bit-Pod offers a se- lection of opportunities to network with other start-ups helping you scale the slip- pery slopes of early stage development. In conclusion, EU countries were given until April 2021 to submit their nation- al recovery and resilience plans (RRP) setting out their reform and investment agendas until 2026, but some member states have thus far failed to do so. Mal- ta's own RRP is still in embryonic stage so perhaps there is time to give priority for adequate funds to support research and development. Next Malta summit to embrace AI evangelists George Mangion George Mangion is a senior partner of an audit and consultancy firm, and has over 25 years experience in accounting, taxation, financial and consultancy services. His efforts have seen PKF being instrumental in establishing many companies in Malta and ensured PKF become one of the foremost professional financial service providers on the Island