TEHRAN - The Vice Presidency for Science and Technology has prepared three comprehensive plans to develop artificial intelligence in different sectors.

Currently, artificial intelligence is the first priority for the development of technology and is pursued with three programs, IRNA quoted Rouhollah Dehqani-Firouzabadi, the vice president for science and technology, as saying.

Artificial intelligence is a comprehensive technology and affects all other areas of technology, he highlighted.

“The plans in the field of artificial intelligence include scientific development programs that are mostly pursued in universities. The second plan is technology development programs that are pursued in companies that work in the field of artificial intelligence. And the third plan is the creation of a national technology hub in the field of artificial intelligence."

AI roadmap

Last year, the roadmap for the development of artificial intelligence was drafted after a year of scientific work with the participation of academic and industrial figures from both the public and the private sectors.

The study of the national artificial intelligence development roadmap document started in 2021 at the Research Institute of Information and Communication Technology and was officially completed by the end of November 2022.

The document is presented in two general sections, “application development” and “development of enablers”, Mohammad-Shahram Moein, head of the innovation and development center of artificial intelligence at the Research Institute of Information and Communication Technology, said.

“In the application development section, the main goal is to use artificial intelligence in priority areas such as health, transportation, and agriculture, and in the next priorities, areas such as education, industry, and environment have been considered.

In the development of enablers, we have considered the training of specialized manpower, the development of infrastructure, and the development of the innovation system,” he explained.

The AI roadmap document includes 10 major goals, 9 strategies, and 156 activities for which a ten-year horizon is envisaged, he said.

In order to develop the processing infrastructure, we have started equipping the ultra-fast processing center of the Center for Innovation and Development of Artificial Intelligence. We have also addressed the issues of regulation and standardization, which are very important, in addition to the implementation of service delivery platforms and infrastructures, data markets, and open data.

Moein expressed hope that in the framework of ethical issues while protecting the privacy of individuals, implement the document with the participation of all related institutions and witness its positive impact on the country’s ecology and employment.

Iran’s progress in artificial intelligence

Iran is in 13th place among the top countries in artificial intelligence by the total number of publications in 2021, according to the Nature Index database.

The SCImago ranking database at the University of Granada, Spain, ranks countries and universities based on the number of scholarly articles from higher education institutions in the Scopus database. This ranking uses three indicators of research, innovation, and society in combination.

In the 2020 version of SCImago, the subject of artificial intelligence is a subcategory of computer science, which ranks Iran as 15th in the world and first in West Asia.

Also, in cognitive sciences as a subset of psychology, which is one of the disciplines related to artificial intelligence, Iran ranks 36th in the world and third in West Asia.

In electrical and electronic engineering, which has a part of artificial intelligence, Iran is ranked 15th in the world and first in West Asia.

AI potential to accelerate human development

The UN Secretary-General addressed the Security Council on Tuesday, emphasizing the potential of artificial intelligence to accelerate human development while also cautioning against the malicious use of what is revolutionary new technology.

António Guterres said that if AI became primarily a weapon to launch cyberattacks, generate deepfakes, or for spreading and hate speech, it would have very serious consequences for global peace and security. “Look no further than social media.

Tools and platforms that were designed to enhance human connection are now used to undermine elections, spread conspiracy theories, and incite hatred and violence,” he said.

“Malfunctioning AI systems are another huge area of concern. And the interaction between AI and nuclear weapons, biotechnology, neurotechnology, and robotics, is deeply alarming.”

Importance of science and technology

In July 2022, Peyman Salehi, the deputy science minister, said despite U.S. sanctions, the international activities of Iranian scientists have increased year by year so that more than 35 percent of Iranian articles in Scopus have been multi-national projects.

Science diplomacy is the use of scientific collaborations among nations to address common problems and build constructive international partnerships.

It is a form of new diplomacy and has become an umbrella term to describe a number of formal or informal technical, research-based, academic, or engineering exchanges, within the general field of international relations.

The national budget bill for the current Iranian calendar year 1402, which started on March 21, has earmarked about 37 trillion rials ($75 million) for science and technology.

The bill increased the budget by 35 percent compared to the past year’s budget, ISNA reported.

The Vice Presidency for Science and Technology was formed in 2006 with the aim of creating an environment for supporting knowledge-based companies and providing the ground for the development of technological industries.

A total of 8,034 knowledge-based companies have so far been established across the country.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei designated the current Iranian calendar year as the year of “Production: Knowledge-Based and Job-Creating.”

Over the past couple of years, the concept of a ‘knowledge-based company’ has changed to a ‘knowledge-based society’, meaning that supporting knowledge-based companies will lead to many social and economic advantages for the public.

The Leader reemphasized the importance of boosting domestic production, as he had done in past years, saying the reason he placed so much emphasis on production was “because it boosts economic growth, it creates employment, it reduces inflation, it increases per capita income and it improves public welfare.”

To this end, the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology has executed and supported several projects toward the goal of boosting knowledge-based production.

Moreover, the development of an innovation ecosystem is on the agenda, according to which 65 houses of innovation have been set up across the country.

The Innovation and Prosperity Fund has paid a total of 240 trillion rials (nearly $500 million) to support knowledge-based companies over the [Iranian calendar] year 1400 (March 2021-March 2022).
MG