Turkey announces national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy

Turkey has prepared a national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy, according to an announcement on Friday.

Officially announced in a circular by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the 2021-2025 roadmap defined six priorities covering human capital, research, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, and data quality.

The strategy includes targets to increase the share of artificial intelligence in GDP to 5%, as well as 50,000 jobs in the sector, according to the circular.

Placing Turkey among the top 20 countries in the international artificial intelligence indices is also among the objectives of the strategy.

The strategy, which will be officially rolled out on Tuesday, forecasts that global artificial intelligence expenditures, which currently amount to approximately $50 billion, will double in five years.

As studies suggest, artificial intelligence will contribute $13-15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030 and 13-14% of global growth.

While the number of startup companies focusing on artificial intelligence in the US and China have reached 2,000, this number is around 200 in Turkey.

About half of the artificial intelligence initiatives in Turkey are located in university technology parks, with 73% located in Istanbul.

ERDOĞAN PENS PREFACE TO AI STRATEGY DOCUMENT

According to a statement by Turkey's Ministry of Industry and Technology, President Erdoğan personally wrote the preface to the strategy document, highlighting the effect of AI-based systems on production processes, daily life, and institutions.

"This has brought humanity to the threshold of a new age," said Erdoğan.

AI technologies are expected to have a major impact on the global economy, exceeding even that of the Internet, Erdoğan added, according to the statement.

Stressing that it is time for Turkey to make progress in the AI sector, Erdoğan also noted that such a techno-economic move by Turkey had the potential to contribute to humanity as a whole.