International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Artificial intelligence applications are rapidly entering many aspects of business, state administration and education with the aim of increasing productivity and efficiency. The report examines the possibilities for implementing artificial intelligence in their activities and the related ethical and legal aspects, as well as the risks. A review and analysis of some applications of AI is made.

Cybersecurity studies increasingly prioritize empirical methodologies to understand and alleviate security risks arising from human behavior, organizational practices, and the advancement of technologies used to perform cyberattacks. This research paper explores how the school management and key educators in Bulgarian K-12 schools comprehend cybersecurity within the academic framework of the Bulgarian education system. Our survey of 927 Bulgarian K–12 educational institutions revealed that a very small number of them assess their level of cybersecurity as extremely low. Respondents see cybersecurity training as essential for ensuring information security within their institutions. Our findings indicate that only 25% of K-12 employees are able to incorporate this training into their qualification programs.

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (Generative AI) tools into higher education has significantly influenced student learning behaviour and academic practices. This research paper explores the ways in which undergraduate students at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” apply these technologies for both academic and non-academic purposes. The results reveal that students predominantly use Generative AI for academic support, such as explaining complex concepts, conducting research, and assisting in writing tasks. At the same time, they also engage with Generative AI for personal productivity, communication, and creative exploration. Despite having generally positive perceptions of academic effectiveness, students show critical awareness of risks related to information accuracy, privacy, and ethical use.

The survey “Evaluation of the screen time our children spend daily for using digital technology” was conducted as part of a master thesis in Social Entrepreneurship at the American University in Bulgaria in March 2023. Analysis of the data for “time spent” by children on interacting with electronic devices is increasing alongside with the grow of the child and is directly influenced by entering formal education system. Acceptable “time spent” for the majority of parents is 1-2 hours in age group 5 to 9 (pre- and primary school) and 3-5 hours for 10 and above (when children enter the phase of adolescence). The parental that digital technologies are having positive
impact over children (educational, social and digital skills development) is growing with the child growing up, and for the age group 10 -14 (secondary school) and 14 and above (gymnasium) it is dominating among parents.

Digitalization of public services is a key component in the development of e-government. Citizens’ opinion, needs and overall satisfaction with the provided services are key to the successful implementation of digital transformation across the government sector. Hence, for policy makers it is highly important to develop efficient methods for analyzing public opinion. The main aim of this paper is to use unconventional apparatus to mine public opinion in the Bulgarian government sector. The proposed approach relies on the application of natural language processing and text mining techniques. The study aims at discovering the sentiments and emotions freely expressed by citizens in popular social media websites in Bulgaria. Several topics of public interest are analyzed and insights on public perception of aspects of Bulgarian e-government are derived. Furthermore, benefits and limitations of using sentiment lexicons for mining public opinion are outlined.