Hungary and AI: efforts and opportunities in comparison with Singapore

TL;DR

This paper evaluates Hungary's AI strategy, compares it with Singapore's approach, and offers recommendations to enhance Hungary's AI development and implementation efforts.

Contribution

It provides a detailed benchmarking of Hungary's AI strategy against Singapore's, highlighting gaps and proposing targeted improvements.

Findings

Hungary's AI-related public investment is approximately EUR 4.65 billion.

Only half of the strategic goals have publicly available financial data.

Implementation challenges include fragmented execution and lack of regular reviews.

Abstract

The study assesses Hungary's National AI Strategy and its implementation through the analysis of strategic documents, publicly available financial records, and expert interviews with the Hungarian AI Coalition President and Chief Strategic Advisor to the Government Commissioner for AI. 22 goals from Hungary's strategy were evaluated through conceptual, governance, temporal, and financial dimensions before being benchmarked against Singapore's National AI Strategies (NAIS 1.0 and NAIS 2.0). Key findings include an estimated total of EUR 4.65 billion in AI-related public investment in Hungary. Openly available financial data was found for only half of the evaluated goals, and just three projects made up 98\% of all documented funding. The research also reveals Hungary's implementation challenges, including fragmented execution following ministerial reorganizations and the absence of designated biennial reviews since 2020. Furthermore, the paper provides targeted recommendations for Hungary's forthcoming AI strategy, drawing on Singapore's framework as a reference point. These include adapting to the era of large language models, restructuring the existing triple helix network to foster more effective dialogue and advocacy, and positioning the country as an East-West bridge for automotive AI experimentation.