ROMANIA – TECHNOLOGY
Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca surprised his cabinet on Wednesday by presenting them with an artificial intelligence as his new adviser, reports Politico Europe.
During the demonstration, a face appeared on a digital screen with a computerised voice answering the prime minister’s questions and giving instructions.
“A virtual advisor called ION has been developed by Romanian scientists and will be used to automatically collect and process the opinions and wishes of Romanian citizens,” the prime minister said.
“We are talking about the first government advisor using artificial intelligence, both nationally and internationally,” he added.
Romanian citizens will be able to send their wishes through a special website (ion.gov.ro) and social media. According to research team coordinator Nicu Sebe, ION will compile the suggestions received for further consideration by the government.
Caught stealing intellectual property
Two days after the pompous presentation of the digital advisor to the public, it was caught stealing intellectual property.
The Romanian town hall of Ciugud stated that one of the images presented in the presentation film of the ION project had been borrowed from a local school video without any permission and belonged to the town hall.
“Dear ION, we recommend you to study carefully the Romanian legislation and GDPR regulations on personal data protection so that in the future you will not be accused of unfairly appropriating someone else’s work. We know that you would like to be as human as possible, so this time we say ‘it is human to be wrong’,” the mayor’s office said on Facebook.
On Friday, the team representing the WE are ION project apologised to the Chugood town hall and thanked them for their help with the videos.
