Begovic: Forty-five countries agreed on Belgrade Declaration on AI, EU confirmation pending

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Science, Technological Development and Innovation Jelena Begovic said on Wednesday all 45 countries that had attended a ministerial summit held as part of a Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) summit in the Serbian capital had agreed to adopt a Belgrade Declaration on AI but that the EU needed to complete an administrative procedure by the end of the year for the document to be implemented.

"The key thing is that we absolutely received praise and great support from all countries that were in Serbia today, as well as from all international organisations, which means that Serbia is really on the right track when it comes to thinking about AI and getting science more involved and reducing the gap in technological development between undeveloped and developed countries," Begovic told reporters.

The Declaration aims to promote innovative application of AI and AI as a protector of intellectual property, as well as to promote application of AI in a way that would ensure a bridging of the gap between developed and less developed countries.

The two-day summit at the Palace of Serbia - the largest international event hosted by Serbia since the 2021 60th anniversary commemorative Non-Aligned Movement conference in Belgrade - brought together more than 130 delegates and 1,000 experts from around the world.

The GPAI was established in 2020.

Serbia, which joined the GPAI in 2022, currently chairs the organisation after taking over from India.