The Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship has published a summary of its framework in the field of artificial intelligence.

The ministry said in a statement issued today, Thursday, that its efforts in the field of artificial intelligence are summarized in (6) main outputs, as follows:

First: Jordan’s Artificial Intelligence Policy for 2020

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship prepared in the year 2020 the Jordanian policy for artificial intelligence, and the policy was approved by the Council of Ministers in December (12) in 2020. The policy defines the Jordanian government’s vision regarding artificial intelligence, and the government aims through the policy to achieve the following goals:

Enhancing the use of artificial intelligence in all vital economic sectors such as digital government services, health, education, energy, water, agriculture, smart cities, the financial sector and others.

Creating the enabling environment for artificial intelligence, including the legislative, regulatory and technological environment.

Develop digital infrastructure to meet and keep pace with the needs of artificial intelligence technology.

Building Jordanian capabilities, expertise and skills specialized in artificial intelligence and employing knowledge in developing all sectors.

Enhancing the role of the public sector in using and adopting artificial intelligence techniques and its applications and building the necessary partnerships with the private sector to enhance productive paths towards sustainable development.

Enhancing the business environment for artificial intelligence, increasing investment and support for related initiatives, and supporting emerging national companies operating in the sector to provide services and solutions built around it.

Building a well-established system for scientific research, development, application and experimentation in the field of artificial intelligence, and creating the appropriate environment for artificial intelligence technology.

Raising the level of public awareness and confidence in artificial intelligence technology in the public sector and all segments of society.

Second: The National Code of Ethics for Artificial Intelligence

The Jordanian Artificial Intelligence Policy 2020 requires the preparation of a charter of ethics for artificial intelligence in cooperation with the public and private sectors, civil society organizations and academics to prepare a charter that balances the responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence technologies while stimulating creativity and innovation at the same time.

The Ministry held a series of interactive workshops and brainstorming sessions in cooperation with the Jordan Open Source Association (JOSA), and more than 100 people with experience and expertise from different sectors were invited.

Subsequent to the workshops, a committee was formed to draft the National Charter of Ethics for Artificial Intelligence, headed by the Ministry of Digital Economy, with the membership of specialists and experts in artificial intelligence from various parties from the private, government, academic, security and civil society institutions, in addition to legal and human rights members.

The initial version of the charter was completed and put up for public consultation in the month of 2/2022 to the beginning of March 2022, and the committee finished preparing the draft charter to come out in May (5) of 2022 and it was submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval according to the rules, and the national charter was approved The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence by the Cabinet on Wednesday 3/8/2022.

A summary of the contents of the charter National AI Code of Ethics

The charter covers a set of principles and guidelines that promote the rule of law, human rights, democratic values, diversity, and ethical issues for the uses of AI.

The charter is in line with international best practices including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Recommendations on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, Principles of Artificial Intelligence issued by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Union Guidelines on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics for Artificial Intelligence and Robots published by Stanford University Smart Dubai Artificial Intelligence Ethics Principles and Guidelines, Ethical Frameworks, Principles and Ethical Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence for France, Germany, Singapore, China, Korea, Japan, Finland, Belgium, Canada, America, Australia.

Among the most important provisions and ethical principles contained in the charter are the following: humanity and respect for human rights, inclusiveness and justice, and the non-alignment of artificial intelligence systems to any particular group, privacy, data privacy and the privacy of individuals and others, transparency and that artificial intelligence systems are explanatory, responsibility and legal and ethical accountability , The reliability of artificial intelligence systems, taking into account that the use of artificial intelligence is environmentally and sustainable and achieves sustainable development goals.

The charter also included the ethics of practical research, the ethics of the virtual environment (metavirus) and the risks of not adhering to the ethics of artificial intelligence, and made specific recommendations, including: awareness of the content and provisions of the charter, urging the inclusion of the charter’s provisions in teaching and educational curricula, encouraging institutions to adopt the charter among their internal professional practices, Urging the creation of incentive privileges for institutions that comply with the implementation of the charter and abide by its provisions, and provide channels for receiving complaints related to the ethics of artificial intelligence, which allows assessing the resulting damage and taking future decisions in proportion to it.

Third: The National Artificial Intelligence Strategy and Executive Plan (2023-2027)

The Jordanian Artificial Intelligence Policy for 2020 requires: developing a general strategic framework (“strategy”) to activate artificial intelligence in all priority sectors in the Kingdom, and drawing up a road map with a specific time frame for the implementation of projects and initiatives emanating from the strategy.

The Jordanian Ministry of Artificial Intelligence has prepared the strategic plan for 2023-2027 in cooperation with the European Union (EU), ESCWA and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (NUDO).

More than 70 meetings and brainstorming sessions were held with stakeholders and stakeholders from the public and private sectors, civil society and academia, drawing on many international practices, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Singapore, Egypt, New York State, and others.

The strategy includes five main objectives of the strategy in line with the Jordanian Artificial Intelligence Policy 2020, which are: capacity building and development of Jordanian skills and expertise, encouraging scientific research and development, enhancing the investment and entrepreneurship environment in the fields of artificial intelligence, ensuring the legislative and regulatory environment that supports the safe employment of artificial intelligence, and applying intelligence tools Artificial intelligence to raise the efficiency of the public sector and priority sectors.

Two types of performance indicators and targets have been defined, the first type being at the level of strategic goals and the second type being directly related to projects and initiatives.

Six (6) goals related to the strategic goals have been identified: achieving an increase in the number of researchers and published research in artificial intelligence by 30%, increasing the volume of investment and bringing the number of startup companies working with artificial intelligence to 30 companies, training 30,000 trainees through the capacity building program and raising Competencies, raising awareness of artificial intelligence in 50 government agencies, applying artificial intelligence in 25 applied government projects to solve national problems and challenges, achieving a 20% improvement in the global index of artificial intelligence readiness.

Fourth: The Executive Plan of the Jordanian Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2023-2027

The strategy results in a 5-year implementation plan extending from 2023 to 2027. The executive plan includes 66 carefully selected projects and initiatives in coordination with stakeholders working in these sectors.

The executive plan is divided into two parts: the first part focuses on building the system supporting artificial intelligence in Jordan, the second part is application projects that focus on developing priority economic sectors (digital government services, health, education, energy, water, agriculture, smart cities, and others) .

The executive plan covers priority sectors, including: enhancing the use of artificial intelligence in the public sector to develop digital government services, the health sector, education and digital skills, energy, water, agriculture, finance, smart cities, cybersecurity, and others.

Project Cards have been prepared that include a description of the project or initiative, time period, implementing partners, goals and measurement indicators.

Fifth: The national project to measure the readiness of public sector institutions to adopt artificial intelligence AI Maturity Assessment

One of the strategic objectives of the Jordanian Strategy for Artificial Intelligence is the application of artificial intelligence tools to raise the efficiency of the public sector and priority sectors. To measure the readiness of public sector institutions to adopt artificial intelligence and to develop a roadmap for public sector institutions in line with the national vision of artificial intelligence in the Kingdom.

The project aims to assess the readiness of the most prominent institutions in the priority sectors, which are 18 government agencies:

The evaluation of the first 9 government institutions above has been completed, and the evaluation includes holding training and capacity-building workshops for both the category of leaders and the category of employees in each institution. Dozens of training workshops have been held so far and nearly 1,000 government employees have participated in the various workshops.

The assessment in each organization targets the following criteria (data, its readiness and integration, employee skills, digital infrastructure for the application of artificial intelligence, corporate policies and processes).

At the end of the evaluation process for each institution, a detailed report is produced that measures the institution’s readiness to apply artificial intelligence and analyze the gaps they have, in addition to providing them with a 5-year roadmap from which the most important projects and initiatives that the institution must implement to transform from a traditional institution to an institution that adopts artificial intelligence and is managed with data .

Sixth: Technical cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency

The Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, on behalf of the government, signed a joint cooperation agreement with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), related to launching a technical cooperation project between the two parties in the field of artificial intelligence and enhancing ways of cooperation in building and developing the system supporting artificial intelligence in Jordan.

The technical cooperation between the two parties aims to: strengthen and build the system supporting artificial intelligence in Jordan, implement models of use cases in artificial intelligence in priority vital economic sectors, and benefit from the experiences of the Japanese side in this field, within the cooperation between the Jordanian government and the Japanese government, leadership training Some public sector employees have specialized technical training in the technical, legislative, commercial and entrepreneurship aspects of AI.