Damir Medved, director of EDIH ADRIA, was a guest on the show Academic Quartet ure on Radio Rijeka where he talked about the impressive results of the EDIH ADRIA 1.0 project and the announcement of a new phase of digital transformation of our region.
Success measured by results
EDIH ADRIA has positioned itself among top 5% of 225 European Digital Innovation Hubs, affirming that an approach that promotes local expertise and cooperation is the key to success in bringing advanced technologists closer to SMEs and public administration.
During the three years of the project:
- More than 3,500 people have undergone education and training on AI and other advanced technologies
- 70 organisations received detailed “Test Before Invest” support for the analysis and implementation of digital solutions
- Established a strong link between the academic community and the economy through concrete projects
From Fear to Enthusiasm
“At the beginning there was a lot of mistrust, especially in local self-government units – the fear of employees that AI will replace them, whether they will be able to cope with new technologies, etc.” Medved recalls. “But when people realized after the training that the new AI tools were really useful and how to configure and use them correctly, there was a complete turnaround.”
Key Discovery: AI is not just a tool to generate fun thumbnails or memes :). Through EDIH ADRIA education, participants learned how to:
- Prepare information and configure systems for real business application
- Build a knowledge base for reliable answers without “hallucinations”
- Integrate AI into the digitalisation of business processes
- Implement technology while respecting ethical principles
Ethics as a basis, not an obstacle
Under the leadership of Prof. Ana Poščić from the Faculty of Law, EDIH ADRIA put ethical principles at the center of every implementation. “If you apply certain ethical principles from the beginning, it is not more complicated – it is simply the only correct way of working,” Medved points out.
At a time when the world is witnessing problems of abuse and completely wrong implementation of AI solutions (such as the recent Grok/Musk controversy), the importance of ethical standards has never been clearer.
Digital sovereignty – an issue we cannot ignore
Medved also warned about the growing problem of digital dependence/sovereignty: “The paradigm has changed completely in the last year. The issue of a ‘kill switch’ – the possibility for someone to turn off your services remotely – is no longer theoretical. And objectively, we all depend too much on non-European solutions and the whims of irresponsible politicians. Therefore, digital sovereignty and resilience is a key issue to be addressed in the coming period."
European solutions in response:
- European AI models (like Mistral) are trained in European languages and better understand our needs
- European (in our case Croatian) data centers offer security and control
- European regulation protects users' rights
“Perhaps the European AI (LLM) is a few percent worse than the American one, but it originated in our language corpus and certainly can better suit our needs. Here we also come to linguistic sovereignty – Americans certainly do not care about our Chakavian and our dialects – this is our task,” Medved pointed out.
Practical advice for all organisations
Medved calls on all organizations to ask themselves the key questions:
- Where are your data?
- Whose software do you use?
- Can your company work if it doesn't have electricity for two days?
- Do you have a real backup strategy?
- How resilient are you to external pressures and political turmoil?
“It turned out that 95% The company has no answers to these questions. They have a UPS that holds 10 minutes, but they don't have an aggregate, they don't have a plan B. They keep data in the cloud, where exactly the backups are, and who all has access mainly – they don't know...”
EDIH ADRIA 2.0 - Continuation of the story
With a successful first phase behind it, EDIH ADRIA continues its mission. The new phase of the project brings even more opportunities for organisations that want to reap the benefits of digital transformation with the support of local experts who understand their specific challenges.
“The idea of the European Union to bring knowledge closer to SMEs or public administrations through local support was excellent. Therefore, the EDH 2.0 continues to move forward full-bodied – it just needs to come forward,” Medved concluded.
About EDIH ADRIA:
The European Digital Innovation Hub of Adriatic Croatia, based at the University of Rijeka, was realized in partnership with the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, STEP RI, the Rijeka Development Agency PORIN and business partners Ericsson Nikola Tesla and Infobip.
For more information: edih-adria.eu
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