GAIIN: The Global AI Initiatives Navigator

The project aimed to create a comprehensive overview of all AI systems used in federal public administration in 2023. The survey data will help identify challenges and risks related to AI in the public sector. Over five months, 31 AI-related projects were identified across various ministries: 17 operational AI systems, 10 AI research projects, 3 chatbots, and 1 guideline for AI in public administration. This project also serves as preparatory work for the AI Map (KI-Landkarte) initiative.

The Clusters of Excellence “Bilateral AI” will advance basic research at the highest scientific level in the forward-looking fields of research on aging and AI (BilateralAI, 2024[18]). Under the coordination of the Johannes Kepler University Linz, the ‘Bilateral AI’ research project combines two important strands of research in the field of AI to date, namely sub-symbolic AI (machine learning) and symbolic AI (knowledge representation and reasoning).

The three agencies Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws), the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) offer funding for basic research, applied research and its entrepreneurial implementation under the title ‘AI Mission Austria’ (AIM AT). The funding initiative was implemented for 2022 and 2023 with funds from the Fonds Zukunft Österreich (FZÖ) (FFG, 2024[16]).

FAIR-AI addresses the research gap created by dealing with society-related risks in the application of AI.

This Regulation allows for testing of automated vehicles and associated technologies on public roads, but only for a specific set of use cases (lane-changing assistants, self-driving minibuses, and self-driving military vehicles).

The AI implementation plan 2024 is a supplement to the national AIM AT 2030 strategy and at the same time a first interim report on it. The AI Implementation Plan 2024 further operationalises these goals, outlining concrete actions for all 12 ministries, ensuring that AI development aligns with sectoral priorities across various domains such as education, healthcare, and public administration.

Austria has established a “Digital Skills Initiative” (Digitale Kompetenzoffensive) as an intersectional cooperation between five federal ministries (BKA, BMKOES, BMAW, BMF and BMBWF). The initiative focuses on the development and coordination of measures for digital literacy and skills. Under the umbrella of the initiative, the Digital Competencies and Skills strategy outlines how Austria is going to achieve increased digital competencies among the citizens.

The AI strategy will align the use of AI with company goals and corporate objectives. It will provide guidance for implementation projects and ensure a standard process for AI projects and initiatives within the AMS.

Austria has established a set of measures for companies seeking to test automated vehicles (AV).

GMAR is the Austrian platform for measurement, automation, and robotics technology and sees itself as a complete representation of companies, research institutions, scientific institutions, educational institutions and technicians in Austria.

The Platform Industry 4.0 is a membership-based non-profit association, providing a hub supporting policy coordination between relevant stakeholders.

The Austrian AI Advisory Board consists of eleven members from academia, civil society, industry and public administration. Its tasks include advising the Austrian government and the AI service desk on developments related to AI, including technical, ethical and societal aspects and prioritising topics in the field of AI, as well as strategic planning and advice in relation to the Austrian AI strategy.

The AI Stakeholder Forum, founded March 2024, consists of various associations and interest groups and is intended to strengthen a lively and active exchange between the federal government and Austria's various stakeholders in the field of artificial intelligence. Part of the AI Stakeholder Forum are amongst others representatives of employers and labour in Austria, AI and IT associations, as well as associations for youth and for disabilities.

The ministries responsible for Austria's AI strategy jointly lead the inter-ministerial working group AI Policy Forum, which consists of representatives of all twelve ministries. The AI Policy Forum was set up 2021 to support the inter-ministerial implementation of the national AI strategy. Its main tasks include the ongoing monitoring of AI strategy measures and the coordination of AI activities in the specialist ministries.

Grants4Companies is an application in the Austrian Business Service Portal, the main point of contact between businesses and Austrian public administration. It uses methods of symbolic AI to display a list of grants, which match the logged-in business based on its data available in the registries of public administration. The internal representation of the grants also enables analysis of the landscape of Austrian business grants.

The Law as Code approach aims to represent rules or legal texts in the form of formalized and executable logic-based rules, using methods of symbolic AI. Such a representation ensures transparency, explainability and predictability of the execution of the underlying regulations, and hence is especially suited for procedures of public administration. The Law as Code-initiative aims to create a basis for such an approach in the context of Austrian public administration.

The national data strategy for Austria follows the vision to use data for the common good. The strategy was published in 2024 with three goals that aim to develop sustainable data infrastructures, enable responsible data usage and create a data culture as well as strengthen data literacy. The three goals are detailed across 45 measures that address various stakeholders in the public sector and the data economy.

In order to ensure transparency and trust in AI, Austria intends to introduce a labelling for AI systems used in the Austrian federal administration. The primary goal is to ensure that users of modern technologies are immediately informed when they interact with artificial intelligence.

EmbrAIsme is an Interreg Europe project co-financed by the Austrian Federal Chancellery which aims to encourage uptake of AI by SMEs, in particular by raising awareness of AI and the importance of AI skills, facilitating access to funding and building tools to ease the compliance burden of SMEs.

The focus on AI in the performance agreements resulted in a bundle of projects and activities with a focus on AI, some individual measures, some inter-university. The goal was to support the uptake of AI in academia and expanding AI-Literacy/skills and advancing AI research. Measure are for e.g. the establishment/ expansion of HPC infrastructure, the creation of (further) training opportunities on AI for teachers, researchers and students, new AI degree programs or more AI professorships.