Eveniment EArc: The Dawn of Artificial Intelligence

" Mr. President of the Euro-Atlantic Resilience Centre/ Dear Ovidiu
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished colleagues and guests,

It is my honor to be part of this event as your host here in the second biggest building in the world, the Romanian Parliament.
My name is Sorin Moldovan, and I hold several positions: Chairman of the IT&C Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Defense, Public Order and National Security Committee, and member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. These roles provide me with a comprehensive perspective on Artificial Intelligence (AI), a field that's increasingly crucial to both IT and defense
sectors.

Recently, I attended a NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting at MIT in Boston, where we explored topics like AI-driven drones and the evolving landscape of AI. This discussion confirmed AI's significant impact on our security architecture— an impact that will only grow in the near future.

We can see that the future is always coming our way with such a high speed that we, the humans, have a problem adapting the changes. And here is our biggest problem in my opinion, as AI, is not good or bad technology, the way we are using it is good or bad. I offen like to say that weapons don’t kill people, people kill other people with the help of weapons.
Now coming back to our problem that is the speed of development technologies wich is happening on a higher pace that people need to learn and adapt to the changes I would like to talk a little about the study published by the International Monetary Fund in January 2024, entitled "Gen-AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work" where it shows that in advanced economies, around 60% of jobs may be affected by Artificial Intelligence. Basically, key tasks currently performed by humans are being challenged by AI and this would obviously lead to job and employment cuts. But I also see opportunities. I like to think of an example that represented another revolution, the INTERNET.

The Internet is not the one that left the postman without a job because letters were replaced by emails, but it is the one that generated new jobs that are better paid. So, the jobs of the future are out there waiting for us. What we have to do is to keep up with these changes and not be left behind.

In the last years, Romania has taken some steps towards the field of Artificial Intelligence. I think that our beginner position in this regard is an opportunity and not necessarily a disadvantage.

The opportunity is given by the strong potential that Romania has in IT and by the moment we are in. For all the countries of the world, it is the beginning, or as the title of the conference says, “The Dawn of Artificial Intelligence”. So, we have the chance to be part of the beginning of a new reality and the chance to learn from the best – from our strategic partner, the USA, and also from other organizations and countries’ best practices.

We want Romania to become an IT innovation hub, including in the field of Artificial Intelligence, which has huge economic and military potential. It can accelerate the rates of economic growth, can help us process larger volumes of data much faster, develop new products, design new services and digital prototypes. AI offers competitive advantages also on the battlefield, by changing the concept of operating military systems from a "manual control" to a "cognitive supervision" of a complex set of devices, systems and platforms.

However, AI brings new challenges and even possible risks. In this context, the EU legislation and the ethical framework established by UNESCO in this field can help us. Based on these lines of action, we can better regulate and
establish certain safety standards and measures to prevent, mitigate or remedy the possible risks of AI.

As you probably know, in yesterday's meeting, the Government established a Committee regarding the application of European legislation to data, digital services and Artificial Intelligence. Among the main missions of the Members of the Committee are the definition of specific standards, principles and norms in accordance with European legislation, including with regard
to Artificial Intelligence and the development of good practice guidelines/recommendations.

We want to continue the administrative digitization, to transform our public services and businesses using cutting-edge technology. But we need to establish the necessary conditions for these goals to be achieved in a safe, ethical and fair way. I want to emphasize that together, the public institutions and the business community, can develop a series of practical solutions to
make sure of that.

The implementation of Artificial Intelligence in Romania will be in the best interests of Romanian citizens and companies active in our country.

I wish you a very successful event and thank you!"