Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Let me begin by thanking our foreign guests, who have travelled to Riga to take part in the Artificial Intelligence Forum and I also want to extend welcome to everyone who is here from Latvia from all walks of life – academic, political and business.
We hear about AI everywhere. And while the world is racing to develop artificial general intelligence, the existing tools are already transforming our lives.
But as we have noted recently this new technology brings new risks, particularly to our democracies. Our information space is already flooded with disinformation, deepfakes, as well as manipulated content. Other risks come from outside actors who want to reshape the world order. Poisoning AI training data with propaganda is becoming a tool to expand global malign influence. Therefore, we must ensure that AI is not only ethical, transparent but is also accountable. We also must our societies protected from misuse, cyberattacks, and AI-driven propaganda.
AI also brings uncertainty. We see it in market reactions. Therefore, we must focus on AI tools with real human value. After this quite dramatic introduction I want to turn to a more optimistic view.
Despite these risks and unknowns, I am confident that AI can improve our lives in meaningful and positive ways. It offers real opportunities. To better our public services, including healthcare and education. To strengthen security. To search for more sustainable ways of living.
This is why Latvia must act too. We must act with ambition and focus. This year we established the National AI Centre. It includes an AI sandbox that will allow companies and researchers to test new solutions safely and quickly. We are also updating our national AI strategy. It is clear that Latvia cannot compete with major powers in all areas of AI. But, we must and can find the global niches where we can.
Three panels of this Forum reflect the sectors where Latvia has potential - defence, digital government, and education. From each discussion, I hope we can identify actionable opportunities where Latvia can apply or develop AI technologies.
Rising hybrid threats, including drones, cyber risks and election interference, demand AI-enabled solutions. Latvia fully recognizes the role we have in protecting the eastern border with Russia and Belarus. That is also NATO’s and EU’s external border. Lessons learned from Ukraine’s self defence against Russia’s aggression is essential to continuously adapt to the fast-changing technological landscape. In defence and security Latvian companies are accepting these challenges and building innovations that contribute to our own and Europe’s collective security. Latvia is also a home to the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence that has opened a new AI laboratory, advancing NATO’s edge in cognitive warfare domain. By working together, we can further deepen our expertise in safeguarding our territory and information space.
In digital governance, Latvia can be a leader in smart regulation and advanced public services. As the European Commission updates digital rules, Latvia should advocate a framework that is predictable, innovation-friendly, and safe. With high-quality public data and our strong digital culture, we can build services that reduce bureaucracy and empower citizens.
And as a small state, Latvia has a unique role in developing AI for smaller linguistic communities. Our company Tilde has already shown this leadership with the TildeOpen European language model.
Let me finally turn to education. When I visited Babītes high school last week, I saw young people who approach technology not with confusion, and actually hey are not confused anymore – teachers are – but with curiosity. That mindset is our greatest asset. We must use AI to amplify their talents, not replace them. And it is essential that we make these tools available to all students.
The most important question is not how AI works, but what it changes in us — in our habits, our choices and our skills? In the end, our goal is simple. We want AI that strengthens our democracy, supports our security, grows our economy and helps our people learn and create more. Latvia may be a small state. But AI can help us overcome the constraints of scale and excel in what we do best.
I wish you a productive Forum and look forward to the results and conclusions of your discussions.
