Hungary creates organisational structure for AI strategy

Hungary

The Hungarian government has announced the creation of the National Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AI LAB, in Hungarian: Nemzeti Mesterséges Intelligencia Laboratórium) and the National Data Asset Agency (in Hungarian: Nemzeti Adatvagyon Ügynökség) following its pledge to strengthen Hungary’s position in AI set down in the national artificial intelligence strategy of 2020-2030.

The aim of the strategy is to respond to challenges in agriculture and energy created by climate change and in the labour market fostered by the spread of autonomous systems. The strategy also focuses on the relationship between citizens and the data-based economy, and on the need for developing the modern digital service provider state. These two new organisations will play a pivotal role in bringing about innovations in these fields.

Hungary is expected to use the AI LAB as a National Laboratory for pursuing global research projects. To facilitate this research, the Laboratory will act as a coordinating body between research institutes, the market, the AI research scene and the international research community. The Lab will provide funding for flagship basic and applied research projects (e.g. publications, patents, emerging industrial relations, technology transfer) and strengthen the synergy between those actors representing both industry and international projects. The Lab's research plans will follow the objectives of the strategy and focus on areas such as:

  • industry research (e.g. healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing and autonomous systems, telecommunications, transportation);
  • security and privacy;
  • mathematical foundations of AI and deep learning; and
  • natural language processing.

The AI LAB will operate under the leadership of Institute of Computer Science and Control, the most prestigious Hungarian research institute in the field of computer science. The basic research projects are coordinated by the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, a research institute in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The Lab will also cooperate with the Hungarian Artificial Intelligence Coalition, a platform founded by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology bringing together the stakeholders, researcher and government offices that drew up the artificial-intelligence strategy.

The National Data Asset Agency is being established as part of Neumann János Nonprofit Ltd., whose ownership rights are exercised by the Ministry of Innovation and Technology. The Agency’s main task is to create technical and semantic standards for transparent traffic and secondary use of public-data assets.

The newly appointed director of the Agency emphasised that the Agency does not process data, but acts as a coordinator in creating a comprehensive public-data platform from existing public databases that will allow for the secondary use of existing data. In addition to providing easy access to data for research and development purposes, the platform will monitor the use of public data and allow for the exploitation of economic opportunities due to the wide availability of national data assets in the EU.

For more information on the future of AI and data research in Hungary, contact your CMS partner or local CMS experts: Dora Petranyi, Katalin Horvath and Marton Domokos.

AI LAB: https://mi.nemzetilabor.hu/about-us
National Data Asset Agency: https://neum.hu/
AI strategy: https://ai-hungary.com/en