Artificial intelligence is no longer just a topic for laboratories, but a reality that affects industry, education, healthcare, and public administration. It brings great potential for Slovakia, but at the same time raises questions of security, regulation, and energy intensity. The key will be cooperation between the state, science, and businesses, and sensible rules that support the benefits and limit the risks.
Slovakia: opportunity and homework to do
According to the Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery Plan, AI will be key to the competitiveness of industry, especially in the automotive segment, but we should not rely on just one sector. Investments should also go to technology companies outside the carmakers and to infrastructure that will enable automation and robotization. A necessary condition is an agreement across the state, the academic community, and industry, and a clear plan for how to translate research into practice. This also includes a national strategy for artificial intelligence and public‑private partnerships.
The academic sphere points to the importance of “application‑driven” research: to delve deep, but with a view to concrete use. We need a center of excellence and systematic linking of universities with companies so that results do not end up in a drawer. Slovakia’s strong card is the diaspora of AI experts abroad, which can be engaged through mentoring, projects, and “brain circulation,” not necessarily only through returns. Institutions such as Kempelenov inštitút can be a bridge between science and business and a magnet for talent from around the world.
Risks, regulation, and energy
The first major test came on social networks: disinformation and deepfake content showed that the tools for abuse are available sooner than good countermeasures. Regulation must protect elections and rights, but must not stifle innovation; the solution will require cooperation at the national and international level. In addition to rules, we need to build societal resilience and ways to quickly detect and label manipulations. It also remains true that technologies are built by people—and it is people who must set them up so that they serve the public interest.
AI requires hardware and electricity, but research is moving toward models that need less data and compute, while AI also helps save resources in other areas through simulations and better planning. We are in a boom, so it is natural that consumption and costs are temporarily rising, but the trend is toward more efficient “low‑resource” AI for specific tasks. We should not forget the darker dimension either—military applications and autonomous systems increase the urgency of ethical rules and agreements. For now, however, it remains true that we hold the final off switch: if we can join forces and play fair, AI will also strengthen our own intelligence.
