 Ministry has outlined its "quick wins AI & cloud policy" to promote artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and support domestic AI technology providers.){kind=link}
The Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry has outlined its "quick wins AI & cloud policy" to promote artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and support domestic AI technology providers.
The policy has targets of 100 days, six months, and one year, which will be implemented by the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (Depa) under the ministry.
According to DES Minister Prasert Jantararuangtong, the AI and cloud policy is one of six strategies the ministry assigned to Depa for its 2024 operations.
The six policies include AI and cloud, a global digital talent visa, one tambon one digital, video games, Thailand digital catalogue for state procurement, and coding.
Mr Prasert said AI and cloud are essential for the country’s digital transformation.
However, there are some pain points and challenges in the local AI and cloud ecosystems, such as the growing trade deficit from the import of AI tech, limited AI development for domestic services, the public’s low AI literacy, an unclear picture of promotion for state and private sector use of AI, and digital fraud enabled by AI.
Depa president and chief executive Nuttapon Nimmanphatcharin said the 100-day policy includes the adjustment of Board of Investment (BoI) measures to attract AI and cloud technology importers through proper incentives.
A greater number of representatives from the private sector will also be appointed to the National AI Committee, while there would be greater collaboration among state agencies to bolster the AI industry ecosystem.
Mr Nuttapon said Depa is cooperating with the BoI to promote the digital economy.
For the six-month policy, Depa will enhance the AI ecosystem by building an AI district in the Thailand Digital Valley (TDV) in the Eastern Economic Corridor and will set guidelines for the establishment of a co-investment fund for AI development.
Mr Prasert said the TDV is the core project in Chon Buri under the digital transformation roadmap.
Depa also aims to increase the number of startups which provide AI software-as-a-service from the current 10 to more than 20. It also wants to see at least 50 local startups using AI tech intensively.
For the one-year target, Depa plans to attract foreign AI importers to invest and register as juristic persons in the country, while aiming to increase the number of major AI tech providers in Thailand from two to four.
According to Depa, the two key AI providers in Thailand are Kasikorn Business Tech Group, the technology arm of Kasikornbank, and VISAI, an AI-enablement company providing advanced machine learning tools to help anyone build high-quality, high-performance AI-enabled solutions.
Founded in April 2019 as an AI research institute, VISAI is a collaboration between Depa and Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology to equip businesses and industries with advanced technological capabilities to accelerate the country’s AI adoption.
Under the one-year target, Depa will set guidelines for generative/deep synthesis/responsible AI to help the Electronic Transactions Development Agency develop the country’s AI ecosystem.
Depa aims to have at least 20 state agencies using AI in their operations, while reducing the value of damage caused by AI-driven digital platforms to 10 billion baht.