Tanel Tammet: Estonia Could Be an AI Leader, Not a Bystander

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AI compute power, models, and infrastructure are rapidly becoming a new strategic industry whose impact extends far beyond the IT world. TalTech professor Tanel Tammet believes that Estonia should not stand aside from this development. On the contrary, thanks to our digital state experience and agility, we could be the country where new AI solutions are tested first.

Job losses are one of the most common fears surrounding AI. Many people worry that machines will take away human jobs. Do you see this threat as a scientist as well?

I tend to take a positive view. Yes, in some areas, like advertising or design, the nature of work may change, because generative models can already produce very good texts and images. But in most places, AI will remain primarily a human assistant, not a replacement.

Everything related to the physical world (building, maintenance, and interpersonal interaction) will remain human territory for a long time. Self-driving cars have been in development for over 30 years, and they still are not truly ready to replace drivers. If technology cannot yet manage even such a task, more complex ones will take even longer.

How quickly could these changes happen in your estimation? Are we talking about a few years or rather a generational process?

AI development is very unpredictable. Some things may happen within a couple of years, others will take decades. No one can predict which directions will turn out to be easy and which difficult. But one thing is certain: everything we can imagine today will be possible at some point.

You have said that AI should be seen not as a threat but as a new strategic tool that will support all areas of life. What do you mean by that?

If you think about electricity or the internet, they did not take jobs away from people but changed the entire logic of how work is done. The same will happen with AI. Artificial intelligence is a universal tool that will in the future be part of nearly every process: in public administration, teaching, manufacturing, research, and everywhere else.

Already today we see that AI helps people work faster and smarter. Public officials can draft documents and recommendations more easily, teachers can create learning materials more efficiently, and engineers and scientists can test new solutions many times faster than before. This does not diminish the value of work; it increases it.

The Unemployment Insurance Fund has good examples. They use language models to assist officials in communicating with clients and drafting texts. AI helps check whether texts meet requirements and suggests corrections. This does not replace the person but frees up time for more important matters. There should be many more such practical experiments in Estonia.

When we talk about AI as infrastructure, should Estonia have its own AI factories, meaning local infrastructure and development capability?

Right now, the entire world depends on a few major players whose data centers and models are located in America or China. If our data and services reside there, then control is there too. This is not sustainable in the long term.

Estonia should have its own capability, its own compute power, its own model development, and its own people who use them. If all data flows elsewhere, we become very vulnerable in a crisis. Local infrastructure is a question of economic independence, security, and culture alike.

Currently, the state's reaction seems rather cautious, like a defensive position. Defense is necessary, but development does not happen only behind a shield. We should try more. Estonia is ideal for this kind of thing. We have a general digital optimism and interest in new technologies. We have little bureaucracy and decisions can be reached quickly. The fact that we have been successful in developing a digital state did not happen by accident. The same approach could be applied to AI.

With national services and sensitive data, the question of security arises. Without local capability, it is presumably impossible to solve. How do you see this?

This is where the question of where our data actually resides comes into play. Right now, it flows elsewhere. For example, the schools' AI leap uses OpenAI, and that data goes to American servers. This means that valuable data, on the basis of which we could learn and develop ourselves, is moving away from us.

The natural approach would be for such data to remain in Estonia, where it can be securely managed, analyzed, and used for creating new solutions. Unfortunately, the current situation is somewhat paradoxical: data protection allows storing this data in America, but not in Estonia.

In reality, we should strive to keep as much data as possible here, under our own control. Local infrastructure is not just technical convenience but a question of independence and readiness. If all data and services reside elsewhere, we lose the ability to make our own decisions. And if a serious disruption were to occur, whether a cyberattack or an internet connection failure, we would be vulnerable. This is exactly why having our own infrastructure and data hosting capability is critically important for Estonia.

Alongside this, the question of language and culture is also important. If widely used language models do not know Estonian well enough, people will start using English out of convenience, because they get a better answer there. This way, our thinking and communication gradually shift to an English-language environment. If we want the Estonian language and culture to remain vibrant in the digital age, we must ensure that AI understands us.

Iceland, with its small number of speakers, was the first to approach ChatGPT creator OpenAI. In Estonia, there has also been public debate around sharing language corpora. What is the main obstacle in developing AI for the Estonian language?

The obstacle is primarily legal. We have several language corpora, but their usage rights are unclear. There is no clear answer as to whether they can be used for machine learning or shared with a company. Such a gray area limits usage possibilities and hampers development.

If we want the Estonian language to reach the world of AI, we must establish these rules quickly and unambiguously. Otherwise, our language will simply fade into the background of AI development.

Taking all of this into account, what should Estonia be doing right now to not fall behind in the AI race?

AI is not a threat but an opportunity. Estonia could be a country where new AI solutions are born and tested in real life, not a place where we wait to see what others do. If we do not seize this opportunity, others will do it for us.