Spain's AI sandbox, Luxembourg's Whatsapp rival, and Kazakhstan's Smart Cities
Edition #57 The EU takes crucial steps forward on key digital government agreements, while Big Tech has a new rival from the most unlikely of places...
In our last roundup, we were thinking about upskilling the users of digital government services, whether through countries’ efforts in support of the European Year or Skills or Shanghai’s digital lessons for the elderly. In our upcoming interview with Fabian Bigar, CEO of MyDigital Corporation in Malaysia, we continue this theme, and we’ve included one of his recent articles in this edition as a sneak peek into his team’s work.
But this week, our main focus is on a trend we have noticed towards governments creating digital services to compete with - and reduce dependencies on - their private sector equivalents. We have seen this most obviously in national AI Large Language Models, such as the one we cover in this edition from the Netherlands, but we also learnt this week that Luxembourg has introduced a national instant messaging service to compete with those run by the titans of Silicon Valley.
We also wanted to introduce this edition with a special request for our readers. We are putting together an end-of-year reading list for digital government, and would love any suggestions for articles, books or podcasts on the intersection between tech and government that you have enjoyed this year. Get in touch by leaving a comment, emailing us, or through this form.
Our main stories this week:
Spain fires the starting gun for its AI sandbox
Kazakhstan’s Smart City where everybody knows your name
The EU reaches an agreement on the Interoperable Europe Act
Don’t forget to check out our GovTech news in brief, the theory behind the practice and upcoming GovTech events.
Spain fires the starting gun for its AI sandbox - Cristina Gallardo, Sifted
Spain’s government has launched an AI Sandbox to help companies become compliant with the EU’s new AI Act, which seeks to mitigate the impacts of “high-risk” AI systems.
52 organizations, including startups, have “expressed interest” in the inaugural AI Sandbox, which will run for 6 months, according to Spain’s Digital Minister Carme Artigas.
Spain has ruled out giving funds to startups to cover the compliance costs introduced by this regulation, despite calls from a technology lobby that suggests increased regulation may push more AI startups away from Europe and towards the US.
There are hopes that the Sandbox, which will for now focus only on Spanish companies and those who are working on “high-risk” AI systems in the EU, might eventually evolve into a Pan-European AI Regulatory Sandbox.
Kazakhstan’s Smart City where everybody knows your name - Bradley Jardine, Coda
The Kazakh village of Aqkol - with just 13,000 inhabitants - has become the center of the country’s smart city experiments.
The village’s connected digital ecosystem monitors data channels across everything from solar panels to GPS trackers on public service vehicles to identify policy priorities and offer new public services.
But the smart village - underpinned by Hardware supplied by China’s Hikvision and Dahua - is a double-sided coin. While its technology is lowering crime in the village, there have already been reports of similar cameras being used to identify and arrest antigovernmental protestors elsewhere in the country.
Whatever the concerns over the potential for surveillance, it looks like Kazakhstan’s Smart Cities are here to stay. Smart Aqkol has signed MoUs with Almaty and Karaganda - cities with a collective population of 2.5 million - to develop similar systems in the near future.
Our Take: Jardine’s article is a fantastic read, and captures the many nuances of smart city projects. Fundamentally, what stands out from this article is the difficulties that Aqkol faces in basic infrastructure: heating homes; paving roads; and having street lamps that work. It is a reminder that technology is not a catch-all governance solution, but exists somewhere in the upper rungs of a hierarchy of community needs..
The EU reaches an agreement on the Interoperable Europe Act - European Commission
The European Parliament and Council have reached an agreement on the Interoperable Europe Act, which aims to improve cross-border interoperability and cooperation across the EU.
The European Commission notes that the Act will help the EU achieve its 2030 Digital Targets in making key public services available to everyone in the EU and having them support the Digital Single Market.
The Act is designed to ensure cross-border public services function for everyone in the EU, especially those who live in border regions and/or work, study or retire in another EU State.
This Act builds upon previous cross-border digital public services, such as the EU Digital COVID Certificate used to facilitate cross-border travel during the pandemic.
GovTech News in Brief
After CoFoE- What’s next for digital democracy in the EU? - Luca Arfini, Democracy Technologies
Following last year’s democratic experiment, which included the introduction of a multilingual digital democracy platform, Luca Arfini looks at the impact of the Conference for Europe on the EU’s policy and practice.
Our Take: In many ways, CoFoE was a triumph for digital democracy, with ~19k participants submitting policy ideas and ~6.5k organizing events on the digital platform. But as Arfini mentions, the prioritization of citizen assemblies will mean little without transparency as to how they will shape policymaking within the EU’s complex policy ecosystem.
Digital Slovenia: Symbiosis and Mobile Heroes - Ana Plesko, Podkast Digitalna Slovenija
Ana Plesko explains how Slovenian NGO Symbioza has teamed up with the Ministry of Digital Transformation to introduce Mobile Heroes, teams of trainers that go around the country improving the digital skills of the elderly.
The Netherlands is building its own open language model GPT-NL - Dutch Government
To make the Netherlands less dependent on commercial parties, the Dutch government has announced the development of its own open language model: GPT-NL.
Fostering Bangladeshi transformation through Digital Centers - Anir Chowdhury et al., a2i
Bangladesh’s flagship digital government program a2i takes stock of its current status, highlighting the journey to date of its Digital Centers in reducing inefficiencies in government service delivery.
Digital leadership as a catalyst for inclusive and sustainable growth in Southeast Asia - Fabian Bigar, Tech for Good Institute
The Malaysian government has launched an Executive Digital Leadership program in collaboration with MIT Sloan of Asia School of Business, attempting to complement existing technical training with an understanding of business change and digital transformation efforts.
Our Take: interweave recently interviewed Fabian Bigar, CEO of MyDigital Corp,, Malaysia’s strategic change agency managing its digital transformation (coming next week). There Bigar also makes clear his desire to shift digital upskilling from a technological endeavor to one that prioritizes an understanding of business transformation and cultural change.
Luxchat, the trusted Luxembourg instant messaging service for everyone - Chamber of Commerce of Luxembourg
The government in Luxembourg has launched a national alternative to instant messaging applications, seeking to prioritize trust rather than the monetization of user data.
UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden: AI could reduce minister’s workload - Oliver Dowden, The Times
The UK’s Deputy Prime Minister explains how AI is being trialed in Westminster to save ministers time by offering them syntheses of the key decisions they need to make that day
Bank of England unveils plan to regulate Digital Pound - Oscar Hornstein, UK Tech News
The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority have published a proposal to regulate GBP-denominated stablecoins, a potential precursor to a true Digital Pound CBDC.
Netherlands Open Government Action Plan 2023-2027 - Open Government Partnership
The Netherlands has launched the fifth iteration of its Open Government Action Plan, outlining the government’s strategy to improve open government and civil society across 17 commitments aligned to 7 different themes.
Commission welcomes final agreement on EU Digital Identity Wallet - European Commission
The EU Parliament and Council have reached a final agreement on introducing European Digital Identity wallets, which will allow European citizens to access public and private digital services in accordance with GDPR
Our Take: This is not the end of the legislative road for the EU Digital Identity Wallet, though it is an enormous step forward. The agreement still needs to be formally approved by the Parliament and Council before a two-year grace period during which Member States will begin to offer the wallets to their citizens.
The Theory Behind the Practice
Public services AI: grunt work, killer apps and data literacy - Mark Say, UK Authority
ODI’s Executive Chair Nigel Shadbolt discusses how AI may be used in public services to help make administrative “grunt work” more efficient and promote more widespread data literacy across public servants.
Upcoming GovTech Events
Future of Government Awards 2023
The Future of Government Awards - which celebrate leading practitioners, teams and leaders - are now open for nominations
This 12-month fellowship - which supports up to 15 Europe-based practitioners of democracy innovation - is currently open for applications.