In his speech at the start of the new year, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said he wanted to modernise the country and mentioned Artificial Intelligence, “AI”, because of course he would. It is the latest buzzword which sounds important and life-changing, so everyone wants AI including the Nationalist Party.
They don’t have a policy about AI, yet, so we don’t know what they mean about AI, but yesterday, Nationalist Party MPs Mark Anthony Sammut and Ryan gave a press conference and protested the government’s decision to refuse support for a startup that apparently intends to solve Malta’s traffic problems. The Nationalist MPs complained that the startup now is being tested in Macedonia instead of being tested in Malta.
Surely, anyone who is well informed about many the context and themes behind this story will already be laughing at the massive amount of red flags about the Nationalist Party’s statement. For starters, the Nationalist Party seems to be implying that the Macedonian government is doing a favour to a couple of Maltese, which already sounds very fishy.
The actual subject is about an application developed by Alexiei Dingli, a previous mayor of Valletta and also a member of the Nationalist Party. Alexiei Dingli went on the Maltese version of Shark Tank and received a โฌ1.3 million investment for his app called Digital Traffic Brainย from Mark Bajada of the Bajada group (the solar panel importer) and is now investing his capital as a venture capitalist, something applaudable in our economy. The only issue here is that apparently, Mark Bajada wants the government to help him get a return on his investment, and the Nationalist Party seems to be very willing to help their colleague.
Another red flag about all of this is that other applications similar to the one pushed by Alexiei Dingli already exists in different forms. One of them is called Greenroads. So far, I’ve never read an article by the owners of this application pleading for government help in the Times of Malta.
Another issue with this is that there also international applications that have similar services like Google. These are basically applications that help you avoid traffic and make use of unallocated road space. They are very popular in the apps industry and they come with all kinds of services including audio and even video and an automated assistant. The government says it is also developing its own software for local use which would undoubtedly be offered to residents for free.
At the same time, the Maltese government even has a fund supporting the development of these online applications, and the fund is run by Malta Enterprise. The government is pooling public money to support entrepreneurs who are connected with venture capital to develop online apps and AI technology. Unfortunately, for me, there’s no way to short this stuff.
In reality, we all know that AI won’t solve our traffic problems. It’s not as if Alexiei Dingli is going to magically inform us of new roads that we don’t know about which we will start using that will eventually solve all our traffic problems. We simply need people to get off their cars, use public transport and taxis, and build a metro. โฌ1.3 million for a traffic application in an island that can be crossed from one side to another in a day sounds really a bizarre investment to begin with. Surely, the government can’t be blamed for its failure, and it’s incredible these people are making me say things as if I’m siding with the government.
Please note that statistically, the absolute majority of the investments that you watch on US, UK and Canadian Shark tanks are in the deep red in terms of losses. Very few of the companies went on to be a success and in fact the absolute majority of startups don’t make it.
What’s concerning is that this may be a glimpse of things to come with a Nationalist government. Apparently, their idea of having an AI policy is to support the development of applications, an industry that is rife with rife fraud and grift, not to mention the broken dreams and the absolute garbage that comes out of most of the investment done in this venture capital sector.
A serious government would look at AI policy from a macroeconomic level: importing foreign direct capital investment in chip-manufacturing industries, and introducing new intelligent industrial estates with high-rise buildings. If the Nationalist Party wants to help people develop their “AI” apps, they can easily do so by putting more money to Malta Enterprise’s fund. I don’t think we need politicians to start advocating for startup apps. Let’s not be ridiculous.
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