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Dear colleagues at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications,

The Danish government is expected to soon launch a new national strategy on AI. As part of the preparations, a Digital Taskforce on AI has been established with participation of a number of Danish Ministries and interest organisations, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The objective of the Taskforce is to expand the possibilities and raise the ambitions for the use of AI in the Danish public sector. This includes setting strategic objectives for AI in the public sector, reducing barriers to implementing AI and creating successful pilot projects that utilise AI to make the public sector more effective and better performing.

Part of the MFA contribution consists in providing an international perspective on the roll-out of AI in the public sector, and we wish to have Estonia highlighted in a “deep dive” section. Therefore, I am looking to find information/answers to the following questions:

Question 1: General info

• In what ministry/authority/where in the public sector is the responsibility for the roll-out of public sector AI anchored in Estonia (personal remark: to my knowledge, this is the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, but please do correct if I’m wrong – also if the responsibility is shared with other ministries)

• Who could be relevant counterparts for a possible follow-up online meeting with the Danish Digital Taskforce for AI in the public sector?

Question 2: Strategic objectives

• What is the Estonian strategic vision for the use of AI in the public sector? Are there any tangible and quantifiable goals, and which KPIs are looked at in relation to these strategic objectives?

Question 3: Regulatory framework (AI implementation in accordance with existing laws, regulations and ethical guidelines e.g., data security, GDPR, etc.)

• What is the Estonian approach to handling EU legislation in existing use-cases, especially in relation to data handling (GDPR)?

• Which obstacles have you met and how are these handled? Are there obstacles in relation to GDPR which seem unrealistic to solve?

• Has Estonia specifically handled the issue of cloud solutions from large tech companies in relation AI solutions in the public sector? What problems have you identified? How are these solved and which problems are not yet solved? Are there cloud solutions that you do not see fit for the use of AI in the public sector?

• Which other legal obstacles, if any, have you become aware of in your work with AI in the public sector?

Question 4: Implementation

• In Estonia, what pilot projects and/or sectors have been prioritised in relation to AI rollout?

Question 5: Infrastructure

• Do you focus on building national capacity in the form of "on-premise" server solutions and local data storage, and/or how do you approach cloud solutions from large tech companies?

I would be very grateful if my above inquiry could be forwarded to the relevant colleagues. And please do let me know if this is the wrong point of entry. Very much appreciated if you could get back to me by Friday 6 December at the latest.

Thank you very much in advance and please do not hesitate to reach out for any questions relating to the above. At the moment, there is unfortunately no public information on the Taskforce available in English, but if interested, I could let you know as soon as this is arranged. If possible, I would also really appreciate if you could confirm receipt of this e-mail.

Best regards,

Siri

_______________________________________________________

SIRI CAROLINE SPANGSDORF / [email protected]

FIRST SECRETARY

DIRECT: +372 6306 423 / MOBILE: +372 5332 0237

ROYAL DANISH EMBASSY, TALLINN

WISMARI 5 / 15047 ESTONIA

PHONE: +372 6306 400

E-MAIL: [email protected]

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