The Minister of Digital Transformation, Stefan Andonovski, last night was a guest on the programme "Top Topic" on TV Telma, where he spoke about the country's next steps in the field of artificial intelligence, digital transformation and the protection of the Macedonian language in the digital space.
During the guest appearance, Minister Andonovski announced that N. Macedonia is getting its first artificial intelligence centre - "Vezilka", which will be promoted next week. The centre will play a key role in the development of a Macedonian language model and in the creating of a domestic digital base that will enable the Macedonian language, culture and identity to be appropriately represented in modern technologies.
"Vezilka" is a project aimed at digitizing the Macedonian language corpus and developing a large language model that can be used by institutions, the academic community, companies and citizens. The goal is to reduce dependence on foreign tools that often do not recognize the Macedonian linguistic, historical and cultural context with sufficient precision.
Minister Andonovski emphasized that this project is laying the foundations for creating domestic solutions based on artificial intelligence, which will serve the public interest, education, science, energy, economy and the digital transformation of the state.
Within the framework of the activities, the Project holder "FINKI" has already established collaboration with several relevant institutions, including the Official Gazette, the Parliament, the National and University Library, MANU, as well as the institutes for Macedonian language and literature. This cooperation will provide a high-quality and accurate database, including legal and by-laws acts, professional literature and other relevant content in the Macedonian language.
Andonovski also announced that citizens will have the opportunity to contribute to the project by uploading their own digitized literature, master's, doctoral and professional works, which will directly help enrich the Macedonian digital language corpus.
During the programme also was highlighted that the Ministry is working on preparation of compact law on artificial intelligence, which will not limit the use of new technologies, but will set clear ethical and moral standards, transparency and rules for their proper application. The focus will be on areas where artificial intelligence can have the greatest impact, such as public administration, healthcare, agriculture and culture.
The “Vezilka” project costs a total of 6.5 million euros, of which 1.5 million euros are state funds, 1 million euros are provided by the faculties, and the rest is support from the European Union. Minister Andonovski indicated that by the end of this year or the beginning of next year, North Macedonia will already have a functional language model, which will be offered as an “open-source” solution for all domestic institutions and companies.
In response to a question regarding the implementation of the steps outlined in the Reform Agenda, Minister Andonovski replied that with the fulfilment of these steps in June by the Ministry of Digital Transformation would unlock an additional 16.9 million euros from the Growth Plan. He emphasised that the Ministry remains dedicated to working on the realisation of the commitments from the reform agenda, aiming to ensure tangible benefits for both citizens and institutions.