The Luxembourg Prime Minister, also Minister of Communications and Media, and Minister for Digitalisation, Xavier Bettel, presented the results of the Luxembourg public consultation on artificial intelligence on 28 April 2021. The governmental novelties in relation with the AI dossier were also presented. One of the axes that Luxembourg wanted to focus on was the field of continuing education.

The Luxembourg population surveyed on the issue of AI

Presented two years ago, in May 2019, the Luxembourg government’s strategic vision for AI is intended to be human-centric. In order to implement this approach, Xavier Bettel had decided to launch a public consultation on the perception of AI among the population of the Grand Duchy.

To this end, the Media and Communications Department of the Ministry of State (SMC), the Ministry of Digitalisation and the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) developed a questionnaire for Luxembourgers. The questions focused on the population’s feelings towards AI. The consultation was carried out on the internet, but also by post: the Centre des technologies de l’information de l’État (CTIE) chose 20,000 people aged 16 and over to send them a letter so that they could voluntarily participate in the survey.

The results of the consultation

For one month, all participants answered the questionnaire. The main results of the survey were as follows:

• In terms of the benefits of AI, a large majority of Luxembourgers aged 16 and over consider that AI can make everyday tasks easier (70%) and that it can automate repetitive tasks in the workplace (64%).
• We also note that slightly less than one in four people (22%) say they are not sufficiently informed about artificial intelligence to give an opinion on this question.
• Regarding the risks perceived by individuals, we note that for 70% of them, artificial intelligence can act in a discriminatory way or be biased.
• Similarly, 64% of Luxembourgers consider artificial intelligence to be unreliable and 56% believe that AI is not capable of distinguishing between good and bad consequences.
• One result that should be highlighted is the confidence in the public sector regarding the use of AI: 77% of Luxembourgers consulted have a fair amount of confidence in the public administration, compared to 46% in the private sector.
• The area in which the proportion of respondents in favour of an increased use of AI is the highest is public administration, in particular to reduce administrative procedures, followed by mobility, especially for an intelligent traffic system, and health, in particular to receive accurate medical diagnoses and prevent diseases.
• In addition, more than 80% of the people questioned would like to see an awareness and information campaign on the use of artificial intelligence.

How will these results be used?

Following this consultation, a 67-page report has been published to set out all the results. Xavier Bettel said about the consultation and the constitution of this file:

“AI is indeed seen by our citizens as a solution in their daily lives, and I am pleased that we have been able to create more clarity with this consultation to guide our policy. […] We cannot hide behind the complexity of the technology and will need to remain in constant exchange with the experts. We must actively ensure that we avoid any inequality related to AI and make sure that human beings are always the beneficiaries of technology.”

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg said he also wanted to focus his policy on training. He took the opportunity to mention the example of the “Elements of AI” course available in the country and jointly supervised by the University of Luxembourg Competence Centre (ULCC) and the National Institute of Public Administration.

In parallel, he highlighted the “AI4Gov” initiative, a call for projects with a view to promoting the use of AI within the public administration. In 2020, for the first edition, 14 projects were proposed and 6 were selected by the jury. For the second edition of this program, a dozen projects were received. Currently, a dozen projects are being developed to serve the Luxembourg administration.

Translated from Luxembourg : annonce des résultats de la consultation publique sur l’intelligence artificielle