Ukraine hopes to team up with Big Tech for some big plans to make the war-torn country “digitally indestructible”, reports citing statements made by officials during recent conferences suggest.
The main goal is to move towards a cashless society by introducing non-crypto digital money, and use AI systems even for purposes like producing “pre-trial and pre-sentencing reports assessing the risk of a suspect re-offending”.
An initiative, called “Digital4Freedom” was presented by Ukraine’s Deputy PM and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov in Switzerland. Fedorov is described as long-time friend of President Volodymyr Zelensky and a fellow enthusiast in ushering it ever greater levels of digitalization.
The initiative appears very ambitious, and optimistic: it is to make Ukraine “the most digital state in the world”, and that has been the pitch made to the audience in Lugano, who were asked to contribute funds and cooperate on forging a “digital Marshall plan” for Ukraine.
The general promise is that in the future, the Ukrainian government and Big Tech will be “closely interlinked”, while turning the country into “a European Israel”...