Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır met with academics, researchers and university students at the 5th Boyluca Thought Camp in Alucra, Giresun, and outlined Turkey's artificial intelligence roadmap and goals.
Artificial Intelligence Literacy Campaign
Minister Kacır noted that artificial intelligence has the power to transform every aspect of life and stressed the need to raise public awareness. "In the next 2 years, we will strive to provide AI literacy to 5 million citizens," Kacır said, adding that the program will cover not only everyday use but all capabilities, opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence.
Kacır also stated that the goal is to rapidly train 100,000 application professionals who will specialize in AI applications.
Public Datasets to Be Made Available to Developers
Noting that Turkey has an advantage in data thanks to its large population and economic diversity, Minister Kacır said, "We aim to make approximately 2,000 public datasets available for Turkish AI developers." He stated that these datasets will be opened for use in many areas such as education, health, energy, transport and finance, enabling local developers to achieve rapid results.
Data Center Capacity to Reach 1 Gigawatt
Stressing that strengthening digital infrastructure is critical, Kacır announced that Turkey's current data center capacity of 250 megawatts is targeted to reach 1 gigawatt by 2030. He said that AI investments in particular will be prioritized in this capacity increase.
HIT-30 Program to Drive $10 Billion Investment
Minister Kacır announced that within the scope of the HIT-30 Program, launched to encourage high-tech investments, nearly $10 billion in data center and AI investments are planned to be realized with close to $3 billion in state contributions. "We have allocated a special window for data center and AI categories in investment incentives," he said.
2% of Public Investments to Be Allocated to AI
Kacır stated that by 2030, all ministries' investment programs will prioritize AI projects and at least 2% of public investments will be directed to this area.
Domestic Language Models to Be Developed
Pointing out that AI language models need to be trained with cultural codes, Minister Kacır said, "We must definitely develop our own language models." He stressed that prevailing widespread models belong to different cultural worlds and that it is important for Turkey to produce its own models. He stated that especially the data infrastructure for manufacturing industry should be strengthened and customized models should be created with sectoral datasets.
Minister Kacır added that Turkey should leverage the advantage of being a latecomer in the technology race to chart original roadmaps, and that the success achieved in unmanned systems can be replicated in artificial intelligence.
