23 March marks the day when the Nordic Constitution – the Helsinki Treaty – was signed in 1962. This year, the day was celebrated throughout the whole week, with a new, daily event in each of the Nordic capitals. In Oslo, the day was marked on Thursday 20 March at the Norwegian Parliament, Stortinget.
Under the theme ’AI and Democracy’ a panel discussed challenges and opportunities for the Nordic democracies related to the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
“AI gives a lot of opportunities, but also a lot of challenges when it comes to democratic processes,” said the Norwegian Minister of Nordic Cooperation in her opening remarks.
She underlined the importance of Nordic Innovation's AI initiatives “we need to build digital resilience in the Nordics. Nordic Innovation has set up an expert group that will soon publish recommendations on how the Nordics can become leading in ethical AI. AI has no borders, and strong collaboration in the Nordics is therefore extremely important”.
Ethics more important than ever before
Leading up to the panel discussion, the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment gave examples of how AI can be used in creating fake news, fake images, fake influencers and deepfake, and how rapid the technology develops. An example of the world´s first news channel, Channel 1, purely created with AI, underlined the need for initiatives.
“False images telling true stories. How should we deal with that,” said Eskil Greendahl Sivertsen, Special Advisor at Norwegian Defence Research Establishment.
Nordics can play an important role
There was a general agreement among the panelists that there is a need for regulation and verification tools, and that the Nordics can play an important role in the development.
Norwegian Minister for Digitalization and Administration, Karianne Tung, said “regulation is necessary to create common ground rules for everyone in the society”. She also mentioned an ‘AI-svan label´ as an example of a potential verification label.
Member of Nordic Innovation’s ethical AI expert group, Gry Hasselbalch, also underlined the importance of common regulations, but stated that AI as a democratic challenge is nothing new “AI has been a part of our democratic processes for the last 10-15 years through our social media”.
She underlined the importance of EU-regulation, and that the Nordics can play an important role in this “the Nordics have a very special position when it comes to value-based approaches. We are perceived as someone who can contribute to this agenda. We have a history within the development of technologies for value-based approaches”.
"AI has no borders, and strong collaboration in the Nordics is therefore extremely important”
Norwegian Minister of Nordic Cooperation, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim.
Need to develop own technology
Another key message from the discussion was that the Nordics should focus more on developing AI technology and not just regulate technology created by others. This is important as AI technology is shaped by values reflecting its founders and can be used in constructing political narratives.
Petter Bae Brandtzæg from University of Oslo/SINTEF said “in the USA there is now a war on language models with different political views. Elon Musk found ChatGPT too left wing, so he decided to develop his own language model based on other values. You can therefore use language models to create different narratives”.
Instead of just regulating the technologies and restricting ourselves, the Nordics should contribute to the actual development.
“The big developments happen in Silicon Valley and China. They create the premises, which is a big part of the problem. We need to develop our own technology and verification tools so that we can continue to use AI without limitations,” said Petter Bae Brandtzæg.
The Nordic Ethical AI Expert Group
Nordic Innovation has selected 23 Nordic experts within AI and Data to be a part of the Nordic Ethical AI Expert Group. The group will develop a roadmap for how the Nordic region can become leading within ethical AI. Their recommendations will be launched during spring/summer 2024.
“The discussions at Nordic Day in Oslo were a clear statement of why we need a Nordic Ethical AI Expert Group. The challenges that AI brings to democratic processes call for ethical solutions. This is an agenda the Nordics can really contribute to, and we look very much forward to finalizing the policy recommendations together with the expert group,” says Ville Mäkinen, Advisor at Nordic Innovation.
