Aleksandar Mastilović, international telecommunications expert - Artificial intelligence is forcing us to awaken and lifelong learning

In a system like in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where we are lagging behind in numerous digital transformations, the inevitability dictates that the adjustment processes take place simultaneously, which seems like a complicated and demanding reform to the less knowledgeable, while traditionally we find it difficult to discard old habits.

These benefits are not only aimed at service users, they are also visible from the position of employees in companies and administrative bodies in such a way that technologies will take over mostly boring, repetitive and uncreative jobs which use up a lot of time and energy and do not contribute to the personal career development of employees. These are e.g. activities in which we transcribe and retype documents or their parts from paper into databases, i.e. from one base to another, wherefor many employees waste several days, while machines can do it error-free in just a few seconds.

- Personally, I do not believe in such an apocalyptic scenario. Depending on one to another workplace and type of skills, that are exclusively available to people today, technology in general, even artificial intelligence will be a complement somewhere - a complement to people, and sometimes a supplement - somewhere they will really replace us. However, the emergence of new technologies will also create new jobs with brand new descriptions and requirements which in turn will affect the reform in the sphere of education and workforce preparation for new circumstances and needs for entirely new knowledge and skills. Since the emergence of Google and the availability of information online, the worth of purely memorizing the data is decreasing, on which the education system insisted until the 2000s, while the focus is increasingly shifting towards synthesis and creativity, everything that is contained in the term innovation. Humans still have an exclusive hold on innovation and creativity, while artificial intelligence itself has a hard time creating real innovations, almost impossible.

For illustrative purposes, ChatGPT cannot create an advanced clone of itself but that`s why it perfectly handles all the knowledge sit was trained in, and that`s the entire Internet and more. Based on the similarity and what we set as a task, it cross-matches what it already has in its "memory", but if we were to go deeper into analyzing what ChatGPT gives us as answers, all of that is still just combinatorics over everything that human civilizations have created over the centuries. Perhaps sometime in the future, with the emergence of quantum computers and multi-million acceleration math calculations on chips, it will change and maybe artificial intelligence will reach the singularity point which marks the moment that its capacity for intelligence surpassed human, but we can say that this is unlikely at this moment of development due to objective limitations.

- It`s practically inexplicable why this process is so slow in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Electronic qualified signature has been present in BiH for several years now, since a commercial company began to provide services in that domain, later, other registered signature and identity certifiers of ITA, IDDEEA and BH Post at the state level joined and one ministry of Republika Srpska, which is not yet a registered certifier in the Office of the Ministry of Communication and Transport of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We`ve had laws in this area since 2006 both at the level of BiH and entities, so what can often be heard in the public and at conferences that we didn`t have laws and couldn`t go into implementation is incorrect - we did not have any amendments to other related laws that require the administration to apply electronic business, and above all the Administrative Procedure Act and the accompanying by-laws and regulations on office operations at the level of institutions of BiH and entities, but even those changes were made in 2022.

Now the administration recognizes electronic correspondence and the conduct of proceedings in electronic form including the submission of the application which has been signed electronically and as such sent to the protocol or registry office of the administrative authority. I think it is necessary to approach the creation of some strategic framework, without politicization if that is even possible in BiH on the platform of objective and common interest of all stakeholders, in the domain of what is state or entity jurisdiction and what services are provided at what level. Each level of government can and should create those electronic services from its domain, and the e-citizen and e-business portal will unite them all so that the user, be it a natural or legal person, has all his services in one place. Of course, those portals and services and everything that is generated by the administration bodies, must comply with some interoperability framework, which guarantees that these data can be exchanged without hindrance on official duty, and make some of the official registers and records publicly available in electronic form.

For example let`s say the IDDEEA has opened a register of penalties so every citizen can check whether there are unpaid traffic fines before going to the vehicle registration, and thereby check possible debts to the state. Unfortunately, we do not have such an option for individuals for the verification of tax debts or obtaining confirmation that we have no tax debt, and which many other institutions are asking us for in the procedures of resolving our requests or e.g. in the process of establishing a legal entity. Interoperability and data exchange between institutions horizontally and the level of government in BiH vertically mustn`t be a problem - the EU directive binds us that these exchanges must be ready to work across borders with other countries as part of the obligations on the EU road. For example we would do well to acknowledge the fact that many citizens of BiH have dual citizenships with neighboring countries and to provide such data exchange as a pilot project for verification of compliance with interoperability principles..

- I think only a year ago micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in BiH have become aware of the benefits but also the necessity of digitization and advanced automation. Global competition is becoming more and more fierce and those processes cannot be ignored and remain competitive. Of course, knowledge and understanding of what needs to be done are often lacking and what should be done first. Certainly, the process does not start with the application of artificial intelligence, if we do not have digitalized business data beforehand which would be used for the training of artificial intelligence algorithms. Some kind of strategic approach is mandatory for every single company, tailored to its real needs, opportunities for advancement, but also to its financial possibilities. Some companies will be faster, some slower, but the consensus is that one must enter into this process even with the tiniest of steps. Except for the part that the economy will do, one should also look at the wider context that I spoke about above, namely that the speed of digital transformation of the economy will largely depend on the speed of comprehensive digital transformation of society, of what the public administration does, but also the citizens themselves, employees in business entities in BiH.

eKapija: Could you briefly explain to us the principle of electronic money issuance, since it is a current topic in the RS these days. Why would anyone convert cash to buy e-money, what is the point, greater security,

- In general, although the initiative to implement the idea of electronic money in the Republika Srpska has been launched, the concept itself is not so unknown. Even today, we have examples when we convert money into some form of credit - well, let`s say a prepaid mobile account is a kind of conversion of conventional money into electronic value only that it is recognized by the telecom whose user it is. The same examples are some applications for purchasing or paying for parking, there remains only the question of whether in this way natural and legal persons "credit" the issuer of electronic money, and it remains to be seen whether it will be possible to establish its universal availability practically which means that the credit for a prepaid mobile phone will not be intended only for the payment of calls and telecommunication services, but also for purchases and other payments and payments in general. The state certainly intends to register and monitor electronic money issuers and to introduce some order in that area, so that the value deposited in electronic money is not lost or that the users do not remain without access to that money if the issuing company ceases to operate. The idea for a solution will surely follow the idea of ​​reinsurance of deposits with commercial banks up to a certain amount as it shall be regulated by law.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the sphere of finance, besides the advanced idea of digital money, I would like to remind that there is plenty of room to do some simpler actions in this sphere, such as digitization of the fiscal system, but also the introduction of systems such as the SEF in Serbia - Electronic invoice system (EIS) with automated due date without the need for lawsuits and burdening the court system with simple commercial disputes. Practically, SEF means that the issued and electronically signed invoice is a valid document due on the date indicated and as such a credible document that can be used immediately as an instrument for forced debt collection. Indeed, it can significantly change the way in which the financial and banking sector "breathes", and indirectly also the judiciary, which is overburdened with small value disputes. Only in Sarajevo Canton, for example there are several million lawsuits of small value below 1,000 KM, and most often under 100 KM communal claims for debts, and that process could be practically automated by introducing information digital systems like SEF (EIS).

Given that Bosnia and Herzegovina entered the installation of 4G networks late in terms of the construction of public telecommunication infrastructure, it is to be expected that telecoms have an account how long it takes to return the investment in order to be able to plan investment in new solutions such as 5G. In addition, 5G did not enter so quickly in many other countries, except for the most developed ones. if there are installations, then they are mostly in the main and largest cities in the inner city, which seems more like marketing than actually building a new fast mobile infrastructure. The question that arises is, who needs such infrastructure, because it will increase the price of telecommunication services, and natural persons do not need any more and faster, nor are they willing to pay more for it. The idea is hidden in some new services and users as part of e.g. smart cities, smart factories, etc. and then such users would also be the most important clients for telecoms instead of a business model where physical users were dominant.

- And luck, but there are objective reasons as well. Simply put, BiH is in the early stages of digitalization and digital transformation which we have already discussed, both in the domain of business and public administration. I`m not even sure what could be attacked. Of course, there are examples of attacks that were felt in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, and two incidents may have been especially remembered in BiH, the first one is the leakage of data from the registers in the Municipality of Centar in Sarajevo, and then the ransomware attack on the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, it seems to me that both incidents are from 2022.

To use the opportunity for quick education, the basic thing we need to know about the attack methods, and these are situations when we receive an e-mail or a message that invites us to click on a link on which the installation file of a virus is located or other tool that is then installed on a workstation or mobile device. That is why it is important to work on education and digital literacy of the widest possible population, and especially people employed in the economy in branches of increased risk of attacks in the financial sectors, banking and energy sectors and sectors which have contact with critical infrastructure, and especially those employed in the administrative bodies who handle sensitive and confidential data and personal information.

As for ethics, like any other technology, we can use it for good or abuse it. Electricity can kill, but mainly it changed our life in the 20th century and we still live with those benefits today. A more extreme example is atomic energy, we can make eco-friendly power plants or weapons. It`s the same with artificial intelligence and it will definitely be necessary to develop a legal and regulatory framework to draw a line between what is allowed and what is not. For example, artificial intelligence can be used to create cyber attacks and that`s certainly not something we can allow.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- We will see robots and artificial intelligence around us and surely in some spheres we have a complement to man as a complement, and in some places a complete replacement as a supplement.

It is not the first time in human history that certain professions will disappear, but completely new ones will emerge. I will give some examples, for example programmer as a profession didn`t exist a few decades ago, while, for example, in the early 1900s, one of the more popular professions was to wake up other people to work - "alarm clocks" appeared and that profession disappeared completely. On average, each technological revolution increased employment by 4%, but with the difference that we will have to learn some new things that new professions will ask for and we won`t be able to escape from lifelong learning. Some dream that we will get a job and retire there is very unlikely, and it is important to keep that in mind.