Poland has not yet promulgated any legal acts regulating artificial intelligence due to the fact that – like in many other EU member states – the legislators are waiting for the adoption of relevant EU regulations, i.e. the AI ACT and the Artificial Intelligence Liability Directive that we have discussed in our previous articles.  However, this does not mean that the Polish government and government institutions remain passive in the face of the AI related technological revolution.

1. Policy for the development of AI in Poland – Resolution of the Council of Ministers.

On 28 December 2020, the Council of Ministers passed the Policy for the Development of AI in Poland. The document sets forth the goals to be achieved in the short term (2023), medium term (2027) and long term horizon.  The scope of the goals so set covers the development of Polish society, economy and science in the field of artificial intelligence. The goals that the Council of Ministers has established include, for example, the following:

• In the short term – increasing demand for AI solutions;
• In the medium term – to see Poland as a producer of AI systems outside the country;
• In the long term – Poland being among the top 25% of economies producing innovative AI solutions.

In addition, the Policy for the Development of AI in Poland describes the actions that Poland should take to achieve the aforementioned goals so that it becomes a beneficiary of the data-driven economy, and Poles become a society with common awareness of the need to improve their digital knowledge and skills.

In connection with the development of AI, the document provides for the establishment of such bodies as:

• AI Policy Task Force (operating under the Committee of the Council of Ministers for Digitization, and responsible for coordinating the activities of public institutions in the field of implementing AI Policy);
• AI Observatory for the Labor Market (dedicated to monitoring and studying the impact of AI on the labour market);
• AI Legislative Team (established to address legal and ethical challenges supporting the implementation of the AI Policy.

2. AI development prospects in Poland

The fact that Poland has opportunities to make good use of the AI technology revolution is corroborated by data presented in  various studies.

According to the 2021 Report on the State of Polish AI, Poland ranks as the 7th EU member state in terms of the number of experts working on the development or implementation of artificial intelligence.

In addition, according to the report entitled „The Map of the Polish AI” (2019), 85% of Polish companies developing AI solutions intend to develop their business and plan to increase the number of AI specialists employed.

The Polish economy which is heavily dependent on the flow of electronic data (46% of GDP) and, as a result, favours the creation of data processing algorithms, is cited, among others, as one of the circumstances conducive to the development of AI in Poland.

In addition,  informative activities are being carried out to study various AI-related processes and expand AI awareness and knowledge. Such activities are carried out by both the public and private sectors.

In the public sector, there are such entities as the NASK Centre for Artificial Intelligence Applications and Data Analysis and OPI PIB – Information Processing Centre – National Research Institute, among others.

On the other hand, in a number of private initiatives promoting the development of AI knowledge, some of the best known include: AI Poland, Warsaw.AI, and the AI in Health Conference.

However, despite the above-mentioned statistics, the use of artificial intelligence in Poland is not widespread. According to a report by KPMG in Poland entitled „The Business Digital Transformation Monitor” (February 2023),  only 15% of companies currently use AI generated solutions, and 13% of the remaining companies have declared to have an intent to implement them. This is significantly lower than the global average use of AI reaching the level of 35-37 per cent.

However, this does not mean that the latest AI-based solutions are not being developed in Poland. SentiOne, a company which has built a conversational AI to be the Polish answer to Chat GPT, may be shown as an example of entities implementing the latest tools.

3. Summary

According to experts at the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, the spread of AI is likely to increase business productivity by nearly 40% and have a significant impact on economic growth rates over the next 15 years.

However, many experts stress that in order for Poland to grow with the technological revolution, it will be necessary to improve education at all levels and adapt it to the rapidly developing technology, especially AI.

The full text of the resolution of the Council of Ministers – Policy for the development of AI in Poland is available at:  https://www.gov.pl/attachment/94aaea00-b9cb-4371-b52b-8790ec089dc0