The federal government signed a partnership with the Porto Digital innovation district to explore artificial intelligence within the scope of public management. The agreement was signed by the National School of Public Administration (Enap) this Wednesday (30), during the National Innovation Weekin Brasilia. 
The first initiative will be the creation of the Innovation Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence Projects and Products (LIIA), which will have R$8 million in resources. The laboratory will work on four main lines of action: prospecting innovation projects in AI; execution of AI innovation projects; acceleration and incubation of AI solutions; and promoting AI culture, knowledge and community in government.
By 2029, an additional R$21.7 million should be raised to boost the laboratory with a focus on public-private partnerships. The idea is to develop and implement around 50 AI projects over the next five years.
For the president of Porto Digital, Pierre Lucena, artificial intelligence can assist in government management on several fronts, such as improving productivity. “There are millions of possibilities for improvements that can be worked on within this laboratory with products to be made within it,” Lucena told Brazil Agency.
Another advantage is the improvement of public policies with the use of Artificial Intelligence. “The government has a huge capacity to accumulate data that can be used to improve public policies”, he says.
According to Enap, LIIA will support the development of AI solutions for the federal government for assertive and evidence-based decision making, with big data analysis, construction of predictive scenarios, focus on ethics and special attention to risk mitigation.
“We will be able to have a structure dedicated to solving digital problems. It will be a very interesting movement in the government and will help it get closer to the population”, said the president of Enap, Betânia Lemos.
The government’s partnership with Porto Digital arises in the context of the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan (PBIA), which aims to transform the country into a world reference in innovation and efficiency in the use of artificial intelligence, especially in the public sector. The initiative has support from Dataprev, Financier of Studies and Projects (Finep), Federal Data Processing Service (Serpro) and the Ministry of Management and Innovation.
Located in Recife, Porto Digital is the main innovation district in Latin America and currently has more than 18 thousand employees distributed across more than 415 companies, generating annual revenue of R$5.4 billion.
