The national artificial intelligence (AI) committee will ask the new government to allocate a budget of 1 billion baht to accelerate the creation of 30,000 AI jobs over three years.
“No matter the government coalition, AI will continue to be part of the national strategy as disruptive technologies are critical for the country’s competitiveness,” Chai Wutiwiwatchai, executive director of the National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (Nectec), said in his capacity as deputy chairman of the National AI Policy and Action Plan Steering Committee.
A working group under the committee plans to discuss the second phase of the action plan for 2022-27, with the second phase starting in 2024. The plan focuses on ethics and governance, infrastructure development, technology and innovation, human capacity building, and the promotion of AI applications.
In the first phase spanning 2022- 23, Thailand developed a supercomputer and other infrastructure for AI development.
Mr Chai said in the second phase, the committee will accelerate AI human development with a three-year budget of 1 billion baht, which is critical to satisfy high demand for skilled AI workers.
Moreover, Nectec plans to introduce an AI service platform by offering an open-source first version of the Thai Large Language Model to support the use of generative AI in Thai businesses and the registration of AI innovations, he said.
The centre also wants to promote AI utilisation by collaborating with tech startups to stimulate innovation and create AI service offerings in Thailand, said Mr Chai.
Nectec and the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) also formed a consortium with the Department of Medical Services for data sharing in the healthcare sector.
ETDA advisor Sak Segkhoonthod said the agency will launch AI governance guidelines within a month to recommend how to embrace the technology and make AI usage transparent to minimise possible risks.
Kalaya Udomvitid, executive vice- president of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), said Thailand will see an uptick in AI usage in the next few years.
NSTDA and ETDA jointly conducted a study on business readiness to apply AI technology in offering digital services. The teams sent questionnaires
‘‘ AI will continue to be part of the national strategy as disruptive technologies are critical for the country’s competitiveness.
in May and June this year to businesses in 10 sectors, covering 3,529 companies, with 565 respondents.
The study found 15.2% of the businesses have already implemented AI, 56.7% plan to adopt AI in the future, and 28.2% do not have any plans.
The top three reasons for implementing AI were: to enhance production or service efficiency, foster internal management, and boost revenue generation.
The top areas of AI application are: computer vision and image processing, data analytics and signal processing, and natural language processing.
According to the study, the sectors with the highest readiness to use AI in terms of strategies, capabilities, ethics, governance, people and technology are: finance, trading, education and public service agencies.
For respondents who have no plans to deploy AI in their organisations, the main reasons were: unsure how to use AI, they do not feel it is necessary, or they lack the readiness to do so.
