Posts Tagged ‘AI’
All in Estonia is putting its economic future in AI’s hands
If someone out there was going to make artificial intelligence an integral part of its economy, a good bet would have been Estonia. Already one of the most digitalised countries, it is now looking to systematise its approach to the technology with the aim of increasing the size of its economy by half by 2035 (amounting to an extra €20 billion). Unveiled yesterday by Kristen Michal, the prime minister, and a group of the country’s all-star entrepreneurs, the Eesti.ai initiative will start by identifying the areas where AI stands to make the biggest impact. (The leading candidates are education, healthcare and security.) Once the areas are finalised, public-private partnerships will then be set up to develop applications that can increase productivity.
For a country in Estonia’s situation, such increases are not just nice-to-have. Its population is shrinking, and, all things being equal, when residents do not have enough babies, the labour force contracts. The result must either be fewer services or higher taxes. Immigration is one way to avoid having to make a that choice, but this option is becoming increasingly less viable; population declines are not unique to Estonia, and that is putting skilled labour at a premium throughout Europe. Another is to find ways for the hands that remain to do more work, and here, Estonia is hoping that, AI, in the labour market at least, will make its residents more productive.
Read MoreEstonia launches bold AI initiative to double productivity
Estonia is no stranger to being the first in official digital adoption — already succeeding in making all governmental services online, using blockchain and e-voting. Now it’s time to take this approach into the AI era. The Estonian government unveiled Eesti.ai on Tuesday, an ambitious national program that aims to systematically implement artificial intelligence across all sectors, with the goal of doubling the value of Estonian work by 2035.
Prime Minister Kristen Michal launched the initiative alongside Bolt founder Markus Villig, who will chair the international advisory council driving the program. The council brings together Estonian tech leaders, including IT visionary Linnar Viik and entrepreneurs Sten Tamkivi (Skaala), Kaspar Korjus (Pactum), and Taavi Madiberk (Skeleton), working alongside international experts and sector representatives.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 27 Jan
Read MoreEstonian EdTech Flashka secures €1M, reaches 1M users in first year
The AI boom is changing the learning practices, and the Estonian startup scene is making a mark on it. This month, Tallinn-based AI startup Flashka has raised €1M in pre-seed funding led by Outlast Fund, with participation from Ulixes Capital Partners (UCP) and Vento Ventures.
Founded in 2023 by Stefan Djokovic, David Djokovic, and Simone De Marchi, Flashka has developed an AI-powered study platform that helps university students master complex subjects through automated flashcards, quizzes, and personalized learning tools. It focuses on spaced repetition, a learning technique that boosts retention with adaptive schedules, reducing cramming. It can be used with any subject, or for language study.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 20 Jan
Read MoreAI startups could become the new engine of Lithuania’s economic growth
Lithuania could become one of Europe’s strongest tech centres within just five years, according to the latest study by the association Unicorns Lithuania. The analysis shows that by 2030, the number of startups in the country could triple, the number of specialists employed could double, and the state budget could receive an additional €5 billion in tax revenue.
However, according to the association, such a breakthrough is only possible if the country actively fosters the creation of artificial intelligence (AI) startups. The study estimates that this would require €270 million in state investment by 2030.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 22 Jan
Read MoreMILA Joins the Standardization Technical Committee LVS/STK 59 “Artificial Intelligence”
The Artificial Intelligence Association of Latvia (MILA) has joined the Standardization Technical Committee LVS/STK 59 “Artificial Intelligence,” strengthening professional industry representation in the development and implementation of AI standards in Latvia. MILA is represented on the committee by its co-founder and board member, Gatis Romanovskis.
The Standardization Technical Committee LVS/STK 59 was established in November 2025 to ensure Latvia’s regular and active participation in the development of European and international standards in the field of artificial intelligence. The committee’s scope covers AI terminology, fundamental principles, systems, conformity assessment, as well as the management of ethical and societal aspects, promoting the adoption and practical implementation of these standards in Latvia.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 14 Jan
Read MoreSitra opens a funding call to accelerate the use of AI in social and health care services
AI offers new opportunities that free up social and health care professionals’ time from administrative and repetitive tasks for more important duties, such as seeing people face-to-face. AI has been helping to automate patient data entry and interpret meetings. Moreover, AI can be used to assist in guiding clients to the right services.
In 2024, Sitra funded several AI pilots implemented in cooperation between wellbeing services counties and businesses. The pilots produced good results: for instance, AI-assisted logging of patient data helped to speed up professionals’ work and freed time for interaction with the patient.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 13 Jan
Read MoreCast AI Becomes Lithuania’s Latest Unicorn After Strategic Investment Pushes Valuation Past USD 1 Billion
Cast AI, a cloud infrastructure automation and cost-optimization company with strong operational roots in Lithuania, has officially reached unicorn status after securing a strategic investment from Pacific Alliance Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of South Korea’s Shinsegae Group. While the exact investment amount remains undisclosed, the funding round has pushed the company’s valuation beyond USD 1 billion.
This milestone places Cast AI among the world’s elite billion-dollar startups and makes it Lithuania’s fifth unicorn, according to the national startup association Unicorns Lithuania.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 13 Jan
Read MoreMethodological guidelines developed for the use of AI in education
The State Education Development Agency has drawn up Methodological Guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence in the field of education. These guidelines offer practical and comprehensive support for general and vocational education teachers to facilitate meaningful use of AI in the learning process.
The methodological guidelines set out eight principal directions for integrating artificial intelligence into education, including the skilled use of AI tools, planning the learning process, content creation, assessment, professional development, and teaching students about artificial intelligence. The guidelines underline the ethical and safe use of artificial intelligence, as well as promoting academic integrity.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 6 Jan
Read MoreEstonia joins Nordic AI Gigafactory project
Estonia is no stranger to frontier AI projects, already using the most modern tools in the education system and producing an impressive array of AI-first startups and scale-ups. Now, there’s more on this front, as Estonia has signed a cooperation agreement with Nokia to participate in a Nordic consortium developing sovereign AI infrastructure across the region, Justice and Digital Affairs Minister Liisa Pakosta announced today in Oulu, Finland.
The project currently includes Estonia, Finland, and Latvia, with ongoing negotiations to bring Sweden and Denmark on board. The initiative responds to the European Commission’s program supporting the development of European sovereign AI infrastructure—specifically, AI gigafactories—designed to reduce dependence on third-party computing resources.
For Estonia, the agreement means establishing an AI-ready data centre on its territory that would integrate with both existing Estonian and broader regional infrastructure. The facility would provide essential computing capacity to the public sector, research institutions, and private enterprises.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 19 Dec
Read MoreThe first private AI supercomputer cluster in the Baltics has been created
Latvian tech company Datakom and its specialised artificial intelligence division, AI Datacenter Engineers, have created the first private high-performance supercomputer cluster designed to run and train artificial intelligence models. This step marks a new era in the region’s technological independence, offering companies and public institutions the opportunity to develop AI solutions in a secure environment right here in Latvia.
Datakom’s supercomputer cluster consists of a combination of two systems, capable of reaching a performance of two petaflops. In other words, the system is capable of performing two quadrillion calculations per second. With such capacity, it can, for example, run AI-based video processing and analysis systems, host a local AI chatbot using models with 400 billion parameters, or be used as a local software development and analysis assistant.
“This is a real, full-fledged supercomputer that is now available to any company in the Baltics. Compared to Apple’s currently most powerful Studio computer, which has 100 CPU cores, this supercomputer has 12.3 thousand computing cores connected via an exceptionally fast data-transfer network, thus enabling near real-time operation between processors,” says Datakom’s Head of Business Development, Edijs Tanons. He notes that not so long ago—back in 2020—such performance was available only to the world’s wealthiest companies, which could afford to use one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. Today, technological progress makes it possible to democratise this enormous computing power, including by making it available in Latvia.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 18 Dec
Read More