Türkiye to utilize homegrown AI platform in public procurements

Türkiye will start using the homegrown artificial intelligence (AI) platform “MAIN” in public procurement to increase the quality of service in applications, to speed up administrative processes, and to manage data, among others.

Developed by the Turkish defense firm Havelsan, the Multifunctional Artificial Intelligence Network (MAIN) Enterprise AI Platform is a natural language processing (NLP) model, an indigenous alternative to the productivity AI tools in the market.

The MAIN can summarize and generate text, write code, and more, while it remains as a “closed box” to deter data leakage.

While the MAIN can only work with text for the time being, future iterations will allow image and audio processing.

The MAIN will enhance procurement processes as a part of a contract signed between the Turkish Public Procurement Authority and Havelsan.

Havelsan's MAIN will provide the AI technology infrastructure on the physical servers within the Public Procurement Authority, where classified data will be summarized and indexed for smart search, offered by a virtual assistant.

The first version of the MAIN was created as a result of the efforts to use AI in public and military institutions via prioritizing data privacy.

Large data applications and tools for the institution will be provided in accordance to the needs of the Public Procurement Authority, and Havelsan will commission its “Business Intelligence” software to the institution.